Indian shares climbed 1.3 percent on Tuesday to their best close in nearly two months, with energy giant Reliance Industries leading the charge, and the rise in world equities lending support. Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the main index rose 3.8 percent to 1,066.80 rupees, its best close in almost two months.
The company has paid 7.7 billion rupees as advance tax for the March quarter compared with 3.65 billion rupees a year ago, an income tax department source said on Monday. "Fundamentally, things are definitely improving for the company, especially on the refining margin front," said Deepak Pareek, a research analyst with Angel Broking.
Also, a source told Reuters that Reliance Industries is out of the race for Value Creation after the Canadian firm sold a majority stake in an oil sands property to BP Plc. "The company will not be in a hurry to seal any deal unless they see value associated with it," added Pareek.
The 30-share BSE index closed 1.27 percent or 218.19 points higher at 17,383.18, its highest close since January 20. Twenty five of its components advanced. "Nothing has really changed between yesterday and today. The rise today was also stock specific and did not span over the broader market," said Nilesh Doshi, president of equities at Techno Shares. "Upside from here will require a really solid financial trigger and that does not seem to be anywhere in the vicinity," Doshi added.
The benchmark is up 5.8 percent so far in the month and foreign funds have poured in more than $2.5 billion in Indian equities since the start of this month up to March 12. A portion of this has been absorbed by primary market offerings and Tata Motor's stake sale by Daimler.
Last week, top iron ore miner NMDC concluded its $2.6 billion share sale while animation firm DQ Entertainment's 1.28 billion rupee initial public offering was more than 84 times covered. Engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro climbed 2.8 percent to 1,597.80 rupees, after declining 3 percent over five previous sessions.
Aluminium maker Hindalco rose 2.4 percent to 169.60 rupees. "We continue to be positive on aluminium and estimate FY11 aluminium price at $2,550/t," Edelweiss said in a note on Monday. The Mumbai-based brokerage has a "buy/sector outperformer" rating on Hindalco. Software companies rose on improving demand outlook, dealers said.
Sector leader Tata Consultancy Services gained 1.4 percent while the closest rival Infosys Technologies rose 1.2 percent. In the broader market, gainers outpaced losers in a ratio of 1.7:1 while 324 million shares changed hands on the BSE, better than that on Monday. World stocks climbed as investors bet the US central bank will repeat its vow of keeping interest rates low for an extended period after its monthly meeting. The 50-share NSE index closed 1.4 percent higher at 5,198.10.
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