By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -Indian shares advanced on Wednesday, posting their biggest single-day jump in over six weeks, after Donald Trump claimed victory in the U.S. presidential election, which analysts termed a near-term positive for domestic equities.
The NSE Nifty 50 was up 1.12% at 24,484.05, while the BSE Sensex added 1.13% to 80,378.13.
Both benchmarks posted their best session since Sept. 20. This is after they dropped about 7% from record highs hit on Sept. 27 due to record monthly foreign outflows in October and tepid corporate earnings.
Trump claimed victory in the presidential race after projections that he had defeated Kamala Harris, which would cap a political comeback four years after he left the White House. The official results are still awaited.
“Trump’s potential victory will trigger celebrations in the near-term for Indian markets,” said Neeraj Dewan, equity analyst and former director at Quantum Securities.
“Some of his stated policies like reducing corporate tax rates will help sectors like IT, while focus on China +1 will benefit several sectors and encourage some businesses to shift to India from China,” Dewan said.
While the election results could trigger a rally for a few sessions, analysts say a clear directionality for domestic equities will depend on the policy framework of the next U.S. government and commentary from the Federal Reserve.
The central bank is expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday.
All 13 major sectors gained on the day. The IT index was the top sectoral winner, rising about 4% to post its best session in about four months.
IT stocks also rose after data showed U.S. services sector activity accelerated unexpectedly in October. IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from the country.
Among stocks, Titan fell 1.7% after posting a drop in second-quarter profit as the gold import tax cut drove inventory losses.
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories rose 2.4% after brokerages termed higher volume growth in the September quarter, new launches and a diversified product mix as positives.
Oil India jumped 6% after the oil explorer reported a six-fold rise in second-quarter profit.
The broader, more domestically focused small- and mid-caps rose about 2.2% each.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Sumana Nandy and Sonia Cheema)
