BENGALURU: Indian shares closed higher for a sixth straight session on Wednesday, led by gains in information technology stocks, as investors await the central bank’s policy meeting outcome later this week.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.25% to 17,388.15, at close, and the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.37% at 58,350.53, after see-sawing between gains and losses for most of the session against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-China tensions.
Looking ahead, traders are awaiting the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy meeting on Friday.
With inflation at multi-year highs, the RBI committee is seen raising rates, though the views on the quantum of increase were split wide between 25 basis points and 50 basis points, a Reuters poll of economists showed.
Helping the sentiment in domestic equities on Wednesday, foreign investors bought $860.5 million worth of Indian shares in the last two session after purchasing a net $618.05 million worth of shares in July.
Nifty’s IT sub-index closed up 1.35% after scaling its highest in more than a month in the session. Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 index, rising over 1% each.
Countering some of the gains, top automakers Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki India fell 1.8% and 2.3%, respectively.
Nifty’s auto index closed 0.8% lower, snapping five straight sessions of gains, over chip supply fears on the back of fresh U.S.-China tensions after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which is home to the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of semiconductors.
“If there is any escalation (between U.S. and China) by this weekend, that will likely disrupt the supply chain management globally for semiconductors,” said Prashanth Tapse, research analyst at Mehta Equities.
Among other individual stock moves, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the operator of India’s top airline IndiGo, closed 1.7% higher ahead of its quarterly results.