BENGALURU: Indian shares
rebounded in the final two
hours of trade on Wednesday,
led by a jump in public sector
enterprises on the back of comfortable valuations while a drop
in IT stocks after hot U.S. inflation data capped the gains.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose
0.45% to 21,840.05, while the
S&P BSE Sensex settled 0.39%
higher at 71,833.17.
Both the blue-chip indexes
had lost about 1% earlier in the
session.
“Domestic markets staged a
recovery, buoyed by renewed
buying interest in banking
stocks,” said Vinod Nair, head of
research at Geojit Financial Services, adding that improving
asset quality and government’s
focus on fiscal prudence made
state-owned banks attractive.
Barring IT and pharma, sectors that earn a significant share
of revenue from the U.S., all the
other 1l major sectors advanced.
Public sector banks added
3.24%, led by a 4.20% jump in
India’s top state-owned lender
State Bank of India.
A comparison of public sector banks’ valuations with historical data suggests are-rating
potential of 25-30%, said equity
analysts led by Mahesh Nandurkar of Jefferies. They identified
SBI, Coal India and NTPC as
their top picks among stateowned companies.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation of India, ONGC and Coal
India were among the top five
Nifty 50 gainers.
The rise in BPCL, ONGC and
Coal India also powered the
energy index 2.24% higher.
On the other hand, IT and
pharma shed about 1% each,
after data showed inflation in
the world’s largest economy
slowed less than expected in
January, hurting market expectations of an early Federal
Reserve rate cut. Asian markets
were muted.
Paytm fell 10% on the day,
after reports said India’s financial crime fighting agency has
begun a probe into the company’s payments bank.
The stock has lost 55.05%
since the Reserve Bank of
India’s clampdown on its payments bank business on January 3L
Reuters:
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