Indian shares rose on Tuesday, tracking a stronger rupee and gains across other Asian markets as weak U.S. retail sales data and the IMF's downgrade of its 2013 growth forecast for the global economy raised hopes of more monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Held in a narrow range, the benchmark 30-share Sensex is currently up 112 points or 0.65 percent at 17,215, while the broader Nifty index is up 31 points or 0.59 percent at 5,228.
Pharmaceutical stocks such as Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Cipla, telecom major Bharti Airtel, metal stocks like Sterlite and Hindalco, private sector lender ICICI Bank and software services exporter Infosys are among the prominent gainers in the Sensex pack.
Reliance Industries is up 0.9 percent on reports that it may sell stake in two oil blocks in Kurdistan to U.S. oil behemoth Chevron. Tata Power is gaining 1.4 percent after it sought regulatory intervention for revising tariffs.
Tata Steel is adding a percent as it agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in Dutch metals recycler HKS to Euroscrap Alliance. Axis Bank is moving up 0.8 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings today.
HDFC is up 0.6 percent after allotting 15.18 lakh equity shares on conversion of warrants. SBI is adding 0.7 percent after raising fixed deposit rates for NRIs by 25 basis points.
Exide Industries is gaining a percent after reporting a 7 percent fall in first-quarter net profit. Tata Coffee is rising 2.2 percent after its quarterly profit soared over two-fold.
Sugar stocks are climbing on reports the government has decided to impose a 10 percent import duty on sugar in view of surplus production. Balrampur Chini is up 0.9 percent, Bajaj Hindusthan is gaining 0.7 percent, Dhampur Sugar Mills is up nearly 2 percent and Shree Renuka is moving up a percent.
Aviation stocks are losing ground after state-run retailers hiked aviation turbine fuel prices by 1.7 percent in line with firming international oil rates. Kingfisher is declining 1.2 percent, Jet Airways is losing 0.8 percent and SpiceJet is down 1.1 percent. HPCL and BPCL are down 1-2 percent due to rising crude prices.
India's benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty fell about 0.6 percent each on Monday amid concerns over the slow progress of the monsoon.
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