Indian shares rebounded more than 1 percent on Tuesday, led by export-focused technology stocks on hopes a weaker rupee would boost their profits, while the rupee fell to an 8-1/2-month low on concerns about high oil prices.
India's 30-issue BSE index climbed 1.45 percent to end at 7,745 points, with gainers edging out losers by nearly 2 to 1. Oil price concerns had weighed on shares in the previous week, shaving 3.6 percent to Monday's close, from an all-time high of 7.921.39 hit on August 18. "Technology stocks were in demand because of the weakness in rupee," said Alex Mathew, senior research analyst at Geojit Financial Services Ltd.
J.P. Morgan expects the rupee to weaken to 45 by end-December, it said in a report on Monday. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the top software services exporter, added 2.2 percent to 1,384.05 rupees, Infosys Technologies Ltd firmed 2.4 percent to 2,346.55, Wipro Ltd rose 2 percent to 358.45 and Satyam Computer Services Ltd gained 4.4 percent to 522.55 rupees.
Indian software services companies get two-thirds of their revenue from exports.
Cement shares gained on expectations of strong August shipments and hopes of a rise in prices soon. Grasim Industries Ltd, India's top cement maker, firmed 1.2 percent, Associated Cement Companies Ltd added 1.3 percent, Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd gained 0.8 percent.
Indian federal bonds ended flat on Tuesday taking comfort from easy liquidity but the market was keeping an eye on the rupee. The yield on the actively traded 7.37 percent 2014 bond was at 7.0419 percent, a tad higher than the previous day's close at 7.0361 percent.
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