By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares rose on Friday, led by information technology stocks after U.S. labour market data eased some of worries of a recession in the world’s top economy.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 1.25% to 24,418.2 as of 9:49 a.m IST, and the S&P BSE Sensex added 1.29% to 79,902.51.
The IT index jumped 1.8% and was the top sectoral gainer after lower-than-expected weekly unemployment claims calmed recession fears in the U.S., which is also a significant source of revenue for the sector. All sectoral indexes rose.
The IT index had lost 2% on Thursday ahead of the data.
Other Asian markets, which saw a sharp sell-off earlier in the week after the July U.S. jobs report, also recovered. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index gained 2%, while the Nikkei was up 1.25%.
“The weekly jobless claims data from U.S. has given investors across the world hope that the labour market can continue to hold up, soothing concerns over a recession,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.
Among individual stocks, Eicher Motors rose about 4.5% after it beat June-quarter profit estimates, leading gains in the auto index which was up 1.7%.
ONGC rose 3.5% after Morgan Stanley hiked target price to a Street high of 430 rupees from 302 rupees and reiterated “overweight” rating on the stock.
“We make ONGC our top pick among Asian producers,” the brokerage said, citing a likely earnings supercycle for the company.
ONGC was the top gainer in energy, oil & gas and public sector enterprises, all of which were up 1.7%.
The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps gained about 1% each, mirroring the benchmarks.
($1 = 83.9530 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Janane Venkatraman and Varun H K)
