A general view of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after Sensex surpassed the 50,000 level for the first time, in Mumbai, India, January 21, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
BENGALURU, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Indian blue-chip indexes rose on Wednesday, aided by IT and pharma stocks on soft U.S. inflation data, while financials capped gains.
The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) rose 0.14% to 19,811.85 points and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) settled 0.14% higher at 66,023.24.
“There are no major concerns for Indian markets in the near term,” said Jaykrishna Gandhi, head – business development of Institutional Equities at Emkay Global Financial Services.
Gandhi added that the resistance for Nifty 50 remains near 19,800 levels, after the recent rally.
The Nifty has risen about 2% since Nov. 14 when soft U.S. inflation data elevated bets that the Federal Reserve will not hike rates further.
IT companies (.NIFTYIT), which earn a significant share of the revenue from the U.S., gained 6.3% in six sessions, adding 0.74% on the day.
The pharma index (.NIPHARM) rose 0.63% on the day, taking its gains to 3.70% in six sessions. Macquarie on Tuesday said Indian pharma companies were in a “sweet spot” due to a turnaround in the U.S. generics market.
Cipla (CIPL.NS) was among the top Nifty 50 gainers.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL.NS) added 3.63% and topped the Nifty gainers. The oil marketing company said post market hours on Tuesday that it will consider declaring interim dividend on Nov 29.
High weightage financials (.NIFTYFIN), banks (.NSEBANK), private banks (.NIFPVTBNK) and public sector banks (.NIFTYPSU) lost between 0.2% and 1.2%, capping gains.
Analysts attributed the weakness in financials over the last four sessions to the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to tighten rules for personal loans and credit cards.
The more domestically focussed small-caps (.NIFSMCP100) fell 1.21%, in contrast to the index’s recent outperformance over Nifty 50. Mid-caps (.NIFMDCP) closed 0.34% higher.
“The broad market witnessed some profit booking as investors’ focus shifted to the primary market, marked by a set of IPOs scheduled for this week,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Janane Venkatraman
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