Indian shares open at record high on banking boost

DWARIKESH SUGAR INDUSTRIES

18/08/2021 05:17

BENGALURU, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Indian shares opened at record
highs on Wednesday, boosted by heavyweight HDFC Bank after the
country's central bank relaxed restrictions on the
private-sector lender for sourcing new credit cards.
    By 0349 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index  .NSEI  was
0.39% higher at 16,678.95, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex
 .BSESN  was up 0.43% at 56,032.03.
    HDFC Bank  HDBK.NS  jumped 3.07% after the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) allowed the lender to issue new credit cards, months
after it curbed some operations of the bank due to outages in
its digital payment services. The RBI's ban on the bank
introducing new digital initiatives will continue.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2PO3JD
    The Nifty Bank index  .NSEBANK  was up 0.99%.
    Sugar stocks fell in early trade after a Reuters report that
the country is expected to withdraw its sugar export subsidies
from the new season beginning October.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2PP01H 
    Shares of Balrampur Chini  BACH.NS , Dwarikesh Sugars
 DWAR.NS  and Shree Renuka Sugars  SRES.NS  were down between
1.3% and 3%.
    Among broader markets, Asian shares held near year-to-date
lows as overnight declines on Wall Street reinforced worries
about the economic impact of the Delta coronavirus variant.
 MKTS/GLOB 

 (Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; editing by
Uttaresh.V)
 ((Vishwadha.Chander@thomsonreuters.com; Mobile: +91 7506036802;
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vishwadha;))