India's broader NSE index closed little changed on Tuesday with losses in IT stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services offsetting gains in financials such as Axis Bank Ltd. The NSE index ended almost flat at 10,426.85, while the benchmark BSE index slipped 0.18 percent to 33,856.78.
Shares in Tata Consultancy Services fell 5.4 percent. Parent Tata Sons raised 90 billion rupees ($1.39 billion) from an enlarged block of shares in flagship TCS, IFR reported, citing people with knowledge of the sale. Axis Bank closed 2.4 percent higher. India's retail inflation eased to 4.44 percent in February from 5.1 percent in January, but remained above the 4 percent medium-term target of the Reserve Bank of India.
Analysts, however, said retail inflation could accelerate to 6 percent by June and may remain at 5 percent to 6 percent in the financial year that begins on April 1, leading to pre-emptive monetary tightening. Financial stocks led the gains on the gains, with the Nifty PSU bank index rising as much as 3.8 percent. Punjab National Bank rose 4.2 percent and Andhra Bank gained 5.9 percent.
"PSU (public sector) banks have been oversold, having been battered down so badly, so some sort of bounce was due and the CPI (data) coming in at a soft level became a trigger for the rise as it could lead to some pressure on RBI to re-look the interest rates," said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities. Meanwhile, IT stocks declined led by Tata Consultancy Services, which posted its biggest intraday pct fall since November 2016 after a term sheet showed that parent Tata Sons is set to sell a stake in the company.
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