Indian shares rose 0.39 percent on Thursday on improved global sentiment and strong quarterly earnings growth from top local mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel, dealers said. The benchmark 30-share Sensex index added 36.47 points to 8,813.84. "Strong earnings growth lifted sentiment in late afternoon trade," said Hitesh Mehta, fund manager with Fortune Financial Services.
India's Bharti Airtel showed a 25 percent jump in net profit in the three months to December-end to 21.59 billion rupees (434 million US dollars) from 17.22 billion rupees a year ago. Bharti Airtel shares rose 36.1 rupees or 6.19 percent to 619.7 after the earnings data. Shares of fraud-hit Satyam gained 6.67 percent or 1.85 rupees to 29.6 as media reports said engineering giant Larsen and Toubro may be keen to buy out the company.
Larsen and Toubro currently holds a small stake in Satyam. The stock has fallen more than 83 percent since company founder B. Ramalinga Raju admitted the Hyderabad-based software services firm had falsified accounts by more than a billion dollars. In Thursday's trade, losers led gainers 1,661 to 739 on turnover of 29.6 billion rupees (605 million dollars). Reliance Industries rose 13.55 rupees or 1.21 percent to 1,132.95 rupees, prior to its third quarter earnings later in the day.