BENGALURU: Indian shares ended Tuesday higher, fuelled by gains in energy and bank stocks, even as a sharp spike in domestic coronavirus cases forced the country’s capital to impose weekend curfews.

At the closing bell, the NSE Nifty 50 index was up 1.02% at 17,805.25, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended 1.14% higher at 59,855.93. Both indexes notched their third consecutive session of gains.

Authorities in Delhi on Tuesday ordered people to stay home over coming weekends as COVID-19 cases quadrupled in a week, while India reported 37,379 new infections in the last 24 hours, the highest since early September.

Experts suspect the highly transmissible Omicron variant has begun to overtake the Delta variant, but analysts say investor sentiment remains intact as reports suggest it might not derail economic recovery.