By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) – India’s benchmark indexes rose on Monday, led by heaviest weighted HDFC Bank and metals and tracking gains in regional peers on the back of benign U.S. inflation data.
The Nifty 50 climbed 0.73% to 23,758.2 points as of 10:37 a.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.73% to 78,609.47.
All 13 major sectors advanced. Financials added 1.2%, led by private lender HDFC Bank’s nearly 2% gain.
HDFC Bank offers safety for investors due to its attractive valuations and asset quality that is likely to outperform peers, said analysts at Emkay Global, raising the stock’s target price to 2,100 rupees from 2,000 rupees.
Metal stocks rose 1.3% after India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies initiated safeguard probe on imports of non-alloy and alloy steel flat products.
The initiation of the investigation on appeal from domestic steelmakers’ association is positive for metals, Investec said, adding that Tata Steel and JSW Steel could benefit the most from the imposition of safeguard duty.
Tata Steel advanced 1.7% and JSW Steel gained 3%.
The broader more domestically-focussed smallcaps and midcaps traded flat.
“This bounce-back in India’s benchmark indexes was expected after the sharp drop last week and there isn’t much to read into this,” said Raghvendra Nath, managing director at Ladderup Wealth Management.
“Recovery in corporate earnings is absolutely vital for markets to rebound because all these minor gains on the back of corrections cannot sustain without earnings delivery.”
Other Asian shares rallied on the day after data on Friday showed U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index rose 0.1% in November after October’s 0.2% rise.
The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index jumped 1.3%.
Among individual stocks, India Cements soared 8% after India’s competition watchdog approved Ultratech Cement’s stake purchase in India Cements.
Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy gained 4% on securing a solar project order worth 12 billion rupees.
($1 = 85.0010 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sumana Nandy)
