Indian shares soar

Indian shares ended 1 percent higher on Friday, reversing two sessions of losses, on gains in financial and consumer stocks, buoyed by a favourable weather forecast for the remainder of the monsoon. The benchmark BSE index closed up 1.05 percent at 37,556.16 after losing close to 500 points in the last two sessions. For the week, the index ended 0.6 percent higher.
The broader NSE index ended 1.03 percent higher at 11,360.8, and gained 0.73 percent for the week. It had lost nearly 1 percent in the previous two sessions. Index heavyweight Housing Development Finance Corp closed up 2.5 percent, after raising its retail prime lending rate by 20 basis points a day earlier. It had shed 4.8 percent in the previous three sessions. Consumer major ITC Ltd ended 1.6 percent higher.
"Good monsoons, GST cuts and strong quarterly earnings will push the markets upwards," said Rahul Sharma, a senior research analyst with Mumbai-based investment advisory firm Equity99. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Friday the rainfall as a whole during the second half of the season was likely to be 95 percent of a long period average. On Wednesday, a private weather forecaster had said the country was likely to receive below-normal monsoon rains in 2018, raising concerns over farm output in Asia's third-biggest economy.
The monsoon delivers nearly 70 percent of rains that India needs to water farms and recharge reservoirs and aquifers. Nearly half of India's farmland, without any irrigation cover, depends on annual June-September rains to grow a number of crops. The Nifty Financial Services index gained as much as 1.2 percent after declining 2.4 percent in the previous three sessions. Oil and Natural Gas Corp rose 2.8 percent after the country's top oil and gas explorer reported a 58 percent surge in June-quarter profit after market hours on Thursday.
Indiabulls Housing Finance jumped 6.7 percent to a near 15-week top after it posted a 30 percent rise in June-quarter profit on Thursday. Among losers, Jet Airways (India) Ltd fell 5.7 percent on reports of a cash crunch.