Indian shares end higher as Infosys, banks climb

BENGALURU: Indian shares closed 1% higher on Friday, led by gains in IT giant Infosys and banks, but still ended a volatile week in the red.

The NSE Nifty 50 index settled 1.01% higher at 17,185.70, and the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 1.2% to 57,919.97.

Both indexes rose as much as 2% in the session before weakness in energy and automobile stocks weighed them down.

The benchmark indexes have risen in only two sessions this week, with Nifty 50 notching a weekly loss of about 0.7% and Sensex about 0.5%.

Still, they have been trading in a narrow range, oscillating between their respective 50- and 100-day moving averages for 14 sessions in a row now.

“For the last two weeks, we are seeing more of a consolidation in our market and it might continue, but with the start of the earnings session, volatility has increased substantially,” said Ajit Mishra, vice president - research at Religare Broking.

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“The prudent approach is to go stock-specific with focus on risk management,” Mishra said, adding, that selective purchases in IT stocks as well as “buoyancy in the banking heavyweights”, were helping lift the market even on weak global cues.

Among stocks, Infosys Ltd closed 3.8% higher after posting its biggest intraday percentage gain since early January 2021 and was the top boost to the Nifty 50 index. The Nifty IT index settled 1.63% up.

The country’s No.2 IT services company reported a bigger-than-expected increase in second-quarter profit, led by strong expansion in margin.

Nifty’s private sector bank and finance indexes also supported the market, gaining 1.7% and 1.82%, respectively.

Nifty energy and auto sub-indexes, however, limited some of the gains with a decline of 1% and 0.67%, respectively.

Two- and three-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, a Nifty- 50 component, shed gains to close nearly 1% lower ahead of its quarterly earnings report.

Federal Bank closed 4.4% higher after it reported a 52.9% jump in September-quarter profit.

Jaiprakash Associates Ltd dropped 8.3% after Adani Enterprises, controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, said it was not evaluating a proposal for the infrastructure firm’s cement business.

Global stocks rose on Friday, recovering from the previous session’s 2-1/2 year lows tracking an overnight rally in Wall Street.