BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares were boosted by HDFC mortgage lender and financial stocks on Thursday, extending a new-year rally powered by a domestic vaccine license and an increase in foreign currency inflows.
Prior to 0505 GMT, the blue NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.25% to 14,181.85 and the BSE Sensex benchmark gained 0.2% to 48,268.16.
Both indices had reached the highest levels in the first four trading sessions in 2021, after adding about 15% last year in their fifth annual gain. Foreign investors were pumped more than $ 20 billion into Indian equities last year, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
“Extreme liquidity is creating great support for the markets,” said Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research at William O’Neil & Co in Mumbai.
“The volatile buying you are seeing from foreign institutional investors is just continuing.”
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8%, as investors watched violence in Washington and promised a major U.S. fiscal stimulus package after the influence of Democrats in the run-up of the Senate in Georgia.
In Mumbai trading, HDFC Limited gained 2.2% and was the main driver for the Nifty 50.
The Nifty Bank Index added 0.5%. Lenders such as Yes Bank, HDFC Bank and Bandhan Bank this week reported higher loans and advances from December 31, 2020.
In other stocks, chicken companies Venky’s (India) and Simran Farms fell 2.9% and 5%, respectively, after a bird flu outbreak in several states, according to a government report.
Sobha Limited rose 4.5% after the real estate company said its total sales value jumped in the third quarter by 22.3% to 8.88 billion rupees.
Nifty’s IT index fell 0.81%, with Tata Consultancy Services peeling 1.4% ahead of their third-quarter earnings report recorded Friday.
Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Edited by Subhranshu Sahu