Indian shares ended higher on Friday, tracking gains in global equities, as investors bought shares of recent underperformers such as pharma and financials. The benchmark BSE index closed up 0.95 percent at 34,142.15, ending 0.39 percent higher for the week.
The broader NSE index ended 1.04 percent higher at 10,491.05, gaining 0.37 percent for the week. Indian stock markets have been under pressure recently amid continued worries about the fallout from a $1.77 billion fraud that hit Punjab National Bank, and concerns that the central bank could soon move to raise interest rates to contain accelerating inflation.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1 percent. US benchmark 10-year note yields were last yielding 2.929 percent, after rising to a four-year high of 2.957 percent on Wednesday. "US bond yields have fallen and so sentiment is higher," said Anita Gandhi, whole time director, Arihant Capital Markets.
"Price correction has happened to a large extent in pharma, so market is looking at some value buying." The Nifty Pharma index rose as much as 2.8 percent in its biggest intraday percentage gain since February 8. It had declined about 8 percent since the start of the year, as of Thursday's close.
Financials also gained, with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank among the biggest contributors to the rise. Federal Bank climbed as much as 5.2 percent after the bank on Thursday approved buying a stake in financial services company Equirus Capital.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.