Indian shares open higher, taking short breather from banking fears
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares opened higher on Tuesday, tracking a rebound in global equities on temporary relief from the rescue of financial heavyweight Credit Suisse, although contagion fears in banking cast a shadow. The Nifty 50 index was up 0.31% at 17,041.55, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.33% to 57,817.72 as of 9:43 a.m. IST.
Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced with high-weightage financials rising 0.5%. Thirty-seven of the Nifty 50 constituents logged gains. The rise in domestic equities follows an uptick in global markets as concerns over the global banking crisis eased temporarily after the rescue of Credit Suisse.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were up 0.46%. [MKTS/GLOB] The quick execution of Credit Suisse’s takeover is a temporary relief but worries of contagion in global banking remain, analysts said. Reliance Industries, the largest stock in Nifty 50 in terms of market capitalization and weightage, advanced more than 1.5% after global brokerage firm CLSA termed it a “bargain buy” at the current valuations.
The stock had hit fresh 52-week lows over the last few sessions. Shares of Bajaj Finance climbed 2%, while those of industrial conglomerate Larsen & Toubro added 1%. Information technology (IT) stocks fell after brokerages cautioned that the banking woes in developed markets will likely lead to curbs on discretionary tech spending in the near term.
All 10 constituents of the IT index logged losses.
(£1 = 82.5200 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
