By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -Indian shares advanced on Wednesday as investors wagered that Republican Donald Trump could win a second U.S. presidential term, although the final results are not yet in.
The NSE Nifty 50 was up 0.88% at 24,428.15 points as of 12:30 p.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex added 0.9% to 80,193.11.
U.S. stock futures and the dollar surged in Asia, while Asian markets traded lower, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.8%.
Trump has already won the swing states of North Carolina and Georgia in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, according to Edison Research, taking him closer to completing a political comeback four years after he left the White House.
Fox News projected that Trump has won the White House after predicting his victory in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, other media outlets are yet to call the race.
“Going by early results, a potential victory for Donald Trump could likely result in more spending in the U.S., and is a positive for India due to New Delhi’s constructive relationship with the U.S. and the Republican candidate,” said Anita Rangan, an economist at Equirus.
“Trump’s plans to lower corporate taxes could also benefit Indian IT companies on the demand side, while China +1 trade will help many domestic sectors,” according to Jefferies.
On the day, all the 13 major sectors gained. The IT index was the top sectoral gainer, rising about 3.5%.
IT stocks gained after data showed U.S. services sector activity had accelerated unexpectedly in October. IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from the country.
Among individual stocks, Titan fell 2% after posting a drop in second-quarter profit as the gold import tax cut drove inventory losses.
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories rose 2.1% after brokerages termed higher volume growth, new launches and diversified product mix as positives, despite a profit drop in the September quarter.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Sumana Nandy and Sonia Cheema)
