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.
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
