Indian shares climbed for a second day on Wednesday, rising 1.25 percent to their highest close in two weeks, as foreign appetite for risk revived on the back of higher world equities. "The negatives seem to be discounted in the prices for now," said Rakesh Rawal, head of private wealth management at Anand Rathi Financial Services. "We should see better times for our market from here."
Data showed foreign funds were net buyers of $122.45 million in the last two days, after dumping more than $2 billion over 13 sessions. Energy major Reliance Industries led the gains as its bid for LyondellBasell appeared jeopardised after the Luxembourg-headquartered firm settled a dispute with creditors, paving the way for the chemical maker to get out of bankruptcy.
Reliance rose 1.4 percent to 1,032 rupees. Tata Steel rallied the most in five months after the world's No 8 steelmaker posted late on Tuesday its first consolidated quarterly profit in four quarters and beat market expectations by a wide margin.
The share rose 6.4 percent to 584.90 rupees, with the company saying reviving global demand would further boost earnings in the three months to March. Bharti Airtel erased some of the previous sessions' losses after Chairman Sunil Mittal told the Economic Times newspaper the top mobile operator hopes to conclude the deal to buy Zain's African assets by March 25 and does not see funding as an issue.
The stock rose 2.4 percent to 279.10 rupees, after tumbling more than 13 percent over two days following the Zain offer. The 30-share BSE index added 202.23 points to 16,428.91, its highest close since February 3. Twenty-three of its components gained. In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers in a ratio of 1.5:1 one volume of 343 million shares, slightly lower than last week's daily average of 351 million shares. The 50-share NSE index gained 1.2 percent to 4,914.