Indian shares up, post first weekly fall in 8

Indian shares ended higher on Friday, boosted by heavyweight ITC Ltd, but the indexes marked their first weekly fall in eight ahead of the fourth-quarter corporate results.
The benchmark BSE index closed up 0.41 percent at 38,767.11, while the broader NSE index ended 0.4 percent higher at 11,643.45. Both indexes finished the week about 0.2 percent lower.
Consumer giant ITC's shares rose 3.2 percent in heavy trade to their highest close since September 14, and were the biggest boost to the indexes.
The March-quarter results season kicks off on Friday, with IT bellwethers Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd reporting their quarterly results later in the day.
During the session, the Indian rupee fell by around 20 paise to 69.32 to the dollar after the Supreme Court ruling on concerns of subdued dollar inflows.
Investors also eyed retail inflation data, which will be released after the close of Indian market hours.
India's retail inflation is expected to have accelerated to 2.80 percent in March from 2.57 percent in February on slightly higher food prices, a Reuters poll predicted. It, however, remains under the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4 percent.
A little over 105 million shares traded on the NSE, less than 1/3rd of the 30-day average of around 361 million shares.
Markets have experienced a choppy week, with Nifty's volatility index largely hovering around November highs.
"The problem is that the market is trading at close to 20 percent premium to its averages, so it would be difficult to say that markets will be 15 percent higher from here (in the medium term) right away," said Abhimanyu Sofat, head of research at IIFL Securities in Mumbai.
"One needs to see data from earnings pan out. However, there is a lot of room for growth in mid and small caps."
SpiceJet Ltd rose as much as 9.43 percent to hit eight-month high after it said it would induct 16 Boeing 737-800 aircraft into its fleet to 'bring down flight cancellations to nil'.
Prabhat Dairy Ltd hit an upper circuit of 5 percent after completing the sale of its subsidiary and dairy products business to Tirumala Milk Products.
Among decliners, mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) fell 3.2 percent after Brickwork Ratings downgraded its secured NCDs and subordinated debt on Thursday.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, which was the biggest percentage loser on the NSE index, was down 1.4 percent.