By Rama Venkat
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares ended higher on Thursday, led by metals and consumer goods stocks, as the prospect of talks between Russia and Ukraine and state election results favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party lifted investor sentiment.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was up 1.53% at 16,594.90, at close, and the S&P BSE Sensex was 1.5% higher at 55,464.39. Both the indexes registered their third consecutive session of gains.
“(Nifty’s) 16,800 level is a strong resistance and a bullish sentiment seen in the past three sessions will continue only if it sustains above that level,” said Yesha Shah, head of equity research at Samco Securities.
Both the indexes at their session highs in the day rose more than 2% over ease of concerns around oil prices after United Arab Emirates said it supported pumping more oil into a market roiled by supply disruptions due to sanctions on Russia. [O/R]
India imports over two-thirds of its oil needs, and a surge in crude prices will threaten to push the country’s trade and current account deficit higher while also hurting the rupee and fuelling imported inflation.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers from Russia and Ukraine will meet in Turkey on Thursday in the first high-level talks between the two countries since Moscow invaded its neighbour.
In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party is set to keep control of the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh with a big majority, the count on Thursday of a state assembly vote showed.
The political stability with the ruling party’s win in Uttar Pradesh also acted as a positive for the market, Shah added.
The Nifty’s metals index, public sector bank index and fast-moving consumer goods index rose between 2% and 3%.
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever and Tata Steel were among the top gainers on the Nifty 50, rising 5.2% and 4.3%, respectively.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
