Indian shares soar

Indian shares ended with gains for a second straight session on Wednesday, after hitting a two-month high, tracking Asian peers ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump's news conference later in the day in which he will outline his policies. The broader NSE index closed up 1.11 percent at 8380.65, while the benchmark BSE index ended 0.90 percent higher at 27,140.41.
Both indexes hit their highest since November 11, 2016 earlier in the day. Asian shares pulled ahead to two-month highs on Wednesday, while the Nasdaq ended at another record high on Tuesday. Trump's plan for tax cuts and infrastructure spending has boosted US shares but his protectionist statements during the election campaign have kept many investors guessing.
Investors were also growing hopeful that India's annual budget to be unveiled on February 1 would contain incentives for companies to help prop up an economy being hit by a ban on higher-value cash notes. "Global markets are moving into multi-year highs and Indian markets have underperformed in comparison," said an analyst with broking firm Sushil Finance.
"Also, there is a possibility that budget expectations are getting built in." Among the top gainers were financial stocks which accounted for more than 50 percent of the gains, with the Nifty Bank index
rising as much as 1.58 percent to its highest since December 9, 2016. Shares of IndusInd Bank Ltd climbed as much as 4.64 percent to its highest in two months after the company on Tuesday reported a 29 percent jump in December-quarter net profit to 7.5 billion rupees ($110.09 million). Shares of Shiva Cement Ltd hit nearly a nine-year high after the company approved a potential sale of certain shares held by promoters to JSW Cement. IT stocks were among the top losers with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd shedding the most, down 1.14 percent, followed by Infosys Ltd, which was 0.44 percent lower. Both companies will report their quarterly results later this week.