By Manvi Pant
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares edged up on Tuesday, helped by gains in auto and heavyweight financial stocks, while strong corporate earnings also aided sentiment.
The NSE Nifty 50 and the S&P BSE Sensex were up about 0.4% each at 22,733.35 and 74,948.12, as of 10:30 a.m. IST.
Nifty auto rose 2.03% to lead sectoral gains in the blue-chips, while heavyweight financials advanced 0.6%.
Mahindra and Mahindra rose 4% to a record high after launching its compact sports utility vehicle, which analysts said was at a competitive price.
Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki jumped between 1.3% and 2.6%.
Markets are anticipating strong monthly sales data from auto industry majors on Wednesday, said Anita Gandhi, founder and head of institution at Arihant Capital Markets.
The Nifty small- and mid-cap indexes gained 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.
Gains in the domestically-focussed small-caps and the Nifty 100, which is up 0.5% and includes some large-cap stocks, were driven by robust earnings. Retailer Trent , which was up 6.5%, hit record high, while housing finance firm Can Fin Homes, advanced 4.3%.
Market sentiment looks positive, with most companies reporting strong quarterly profit numbers, Gandhi added.
Among other individual stocks, Jana Small Finance Bank jumped as much as 15.4% after it reported a four-fold surge in quarterly profit, while Poonawalla Fincorp gained 4% to become one of the top gainers on the Nifty mid-cap after a quarterly rise in profit.
All eyes are now on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision, which due on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)
