India Stocks: Financials, metals boost Indian shares amid earnings rush

Housing Development Finance

04/05/2023 11:12

(Updates closing levels)
    By Bharath Rajeswaran
       BENGALURU, May 4 (Reuters) - 
    Financials and metals led Indian shares to close higher on
Thursday, with a slate of strong earnings and sustained buying
by foreign investors helping the market temporarily look past
inflation related comments from U.S. Fed Chair Powell. 
    The Nifty 50  .NSEI  closed 0.92% higher to 18,255.80, while
the S&P BSE Sensex  .BSESN  gained 0.91% to 61,749.25. Both the
benchmarks closed at four-month highs.    
        Barring fast moving consumer goods  .NIFTYFMCG , all the
other 12 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage
financials  .NIFTYFIN  climbing 1.55%. The rise in financials
index was supported by 2.67% 
    jump
     in Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd  HDFC.NS  on
rise in profit in March quarter. 
  
        Metals  .NIFTYMET  gained 1.22% as a weaker dollar
boosted metal prices. Twelve of the 15 constituents of the metal
index logged gains.  MET/L     
  
        The Fed raised rates by a quarter of a percentage point
on Wednesday. While the rate hike was priced in, Fed chair
Jerome Powell reiterated that inflation remained the chief
concern of the U.S. central bank and there is no certainty that
the rate-hike cycle is over.  MKTS/GLOB     
        "It seems like this is the last rate hike," said Hemang
Jani, head of equity strategy, broking and distribution at
Motilal Oswal Financial Services. 
  
        "Expect the Fed rate hike to not have a material impact
on India due to RBI's rate pause and weakness in crude oil
prices."
  
        Brent crude futures  .LCOc1  
    hovered
     around $73 per barrel, on global demand concerns. Both
Brent and WTI crude have lost 10% since the start of the week.
  
        The fall in oil prices is a positive for importers of
the commodity like India, where crude constitutes a significant
share of the country's import bill.  O/R 
  
        Aiding the domestic equities is also the recent 
    return
     of the foreign institutional investors to Indian equities.
FIIs have bought 95.49 billion rupees of equities over the last
five sessions.
  
        
  
        
  
         
  
    
($1 = 81.6740 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by
Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
 ((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463))