Indian shares rose on Friday to post a third consecutive weekly gain, with Reliance Industries Ltd hitting it highest in over 9-1/2 years after posting strong quarterly results and announcing the launch of a low-cost, 4G-enabled phone. The broader NSE index closed up 0.42 percent at 9,915.25, while the benchmark BSE index finished 0.39 percent higher at 32,028.89.
The NSE index gained 0.29 percent this week, while the BSE index inched up 0.03 percent. Reliance gained 3.7 percent, but its telecom rivals slumped, with Bharti Airtel Ltd ending down 2 percent and Idea Cellular Ltd falling 3.3 percent. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced on Friday the launch of the device - aimed to draw tens of millions of low-income users to its telecoms venture Jio's service - a day after the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate posted "surprisingly robust" results, fuelled by improved refining margins.
Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd down as much as 4.1 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively. The Reliance earnings, combined with Wipro Ltd's $1.71 billion share buy-back plan and upbeat results, helped lift investor optimism.
"Sentiment is now turning positive towards large-cap companies, with corporate results being fairly decent so far, and that is one of the key drivers for the market," said Siddharth Purohit, senior research analyst at Angel Broking. Wipro jumped up as much as 8.1 percent to their highest since April 2016 and was the top gainer on the Nifty IT index, which was up 2 percent.
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