BENGALURU: Indian shares were marginally higher on Thursday, as gains in financial stocks helped overcome profit-booking near record-high levels, although caution prevailed ahead of key local and U.S. economic data.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.19% at 25,100.6 as of 10:09 a.m. IST. The S&P BSE Sensex added 0.24% to 81,977.19.
They swung between gains and losses of 0.3% in early trade. The Nifty hit a record high on Wednesday but gave up most of the gains due to profit-booking.
“The Nifty is expected to face choppy waters ahead with uncertainty in market direction,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.
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Analysts expect caution to continue ahead of a key U.S. inflation reading and domestic quarterly growth data on Friday. They also expect elevated volatility ahead of the monthly derivatives series expiry.
Indian shares flat after nine-session rally to near record highs
The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps were little changed.
Asian markets and U.S. equity futures fell, dragged down by technology stocks after chipmaker Nvidia’s better-than-expected results failed to impress some investors.
Seven of the 13 major sectors declined. However, the highest weighted financials rose 0.5%, helping lift the market.
Among individual stocks, Paytm gained 2% after the digital payments company got government approval to invest in its payments arm.
Reliance Industries, the second-heaviest stock on the Nifty, was flat ahead of an annual general meeting. The conglomerate and Disney won approval for the $8.5 billion merger of their Indian media assets.
Power Finance Corp and REC rose about 2.5% each after UBS started coverage on the power financiers with “buy” ratings, citing strong growth outlooks.
Engineering and construction company KEC International gained 6.5% on winning an order, while Sonata Software climbed about 3% after securing a multi-year IT outsourcing deal.
Source: Brecorder
