Indian shares rebounded from early losses to end modestly higher on Tuesday, supported by gains in heavyweight Reliance Industries and automakers despite mixed sales numbers for August released yesterday.
Gail India and Jindal Steel advanced over 2 percent, leading the gainers in the Sensex pack, while energy giant Reliance Industries gained 1.9 percent and automakers Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors rose 1-2 percent. Tata Steel, SBI, Hindustan Unilever, BHEL and Maruti Suzuki were among the other prominent gainers, while Bajaj Auto, Tata Power, Cipla and HDFC lost 1-2 percent.
With lackluster global cues limiting further upside, the benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session up 56 points or 0.32 percent at 17,441, while the broader Nifty index rose by 20 points or 0.39 percent to 5,274.
Reliance Communications climbed 4.7 percent after its billionaire chairman Anil Ambani vowed to bring down its high debt on the company's books next year. Likewise, shares of Kingfisher Airlines jumped 4.7 percent after the Directors' Report for 2011-12 released to its shareholders on Monday showed Chairman Vijay Mallya gave guarantees worth Rs. 5,904 crore for the carrier's loans and other liabilities without getting any commission for the same because of lenders' opposition.
Tech Mahindra rose 1.3 percent after the software services major announced the acquisition of Hutchison Global Services, the back office captive unit owned by Hutchison, for an upfront payment of $ 87.1 million.
Public sector banks ended mostly higher, with PNB, SBI, IDBI Bank and Bank of India gaining 1-3 percent after RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said the government will have to infuse about Rs.90, 000 crore in state-run lenders in the next five years to help the banks meet Basel III norms, should the government decide to maintain its shareholding at current levels in every bank.
Ind-Swift Laboratories soared 10.7 percent and Piramal Healthcare rose over 2 percent on reports Piramal is in talks with Ind-Swift to acquire its contract research and manufacturing business. Torrent Power jumped about 7 percent on the back of a block deal. Ashok Leyland rose 2.2 percent as the commercial vehicle manufacturer reported a 30 percent rise in August sales.
Shares of Blue Dart Express plummeted 12 percent after Deutsche Post DHL said it would bring down its stake in the Indian company, held through its subsidiary DHL Express Singapore.
Infosys eased 0.3 percent after its head of financial services (consulting) in the U.S., Shaji Farooq, quit the company to join competitor Wipro. Shares of Wipro fell 0.4 percent, while TCS shares rose 0.3 percent.
On the global front, most Asian stocks retreated and European markets were treading water in early trading after Moody's Investors Service cut the European Union's outlook to "negative" from "stable", reflecting the increasing risks to member states such as Germany, France, the U.K. and the Netherlands which together account for about 45 percent of the EU's budget revenue.
Also, Andalusia became the latest Spanish region to request emergency funding from the country's central government, tempering hopes for additional stimulus measures ahead of a key meeting of the ECB's governing council on Thursday and the release of U.S. unemployment figures on Friday. Trading volume continued to remain low, as investors remained on the sidelines in the absence of overnight cues from Wall Street.
by RTT Staff Writer
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