India Stocks: Financials, IT lead Indian benchmarks higher on easing tariff fears, foreign buying

Ultratech Cement

25/03/2025 05:12

Updates for morning trade

By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran

March 25 (Reuters) - India's benchmark indexes rose on Tuesday, led by gains in heavyweight information technology and financials, amid foreign capital inflows and easing tariff concerns.

The NSE Nifty 50 .NSEI was up 0.56% at 23,790.2 as of 10:33 a.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex .BSESN gained 0.60% to 78,444.19.

"With the recent correction, Nifty 50 is trading at 17.8x one-year forward earnings. This is a discount to its 5-year and 10-year median, offering value opportunities for investors," said Sweta Jain, research analyst at Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers.

While both the benchmarks have erased their year-to-date losses, they are still down 9.4% and 8.6%, respectively, from all-time highs hit in late-September.

Foreign investors, who have been persistent sellers since the market's peak, have bought shares worth 137.65 billion rupees ($1.61 billion) in the last three sessions.

IT .NIFTYIT and financials .NIFTYFIN, which have higher foreign investor holdings, led gains on Tuesday.

The IT index was the top sectoral winner, jumping over 2%, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he might give a "lot of countries" breaks on tariffs.

Trump's tariffs are expected to be inflationary in the U.S. and do not bode well for IT firms as they derive a substantial portion of their revenue from there.

The U.S. treasury secretary said countries can avoid
reciprocal
 tariffs by cutting trade barriers.

Indian financials added 0.4% on Tuesday after the central bank issued revised guidelines on priority sector lending, broadening the criteria for renewable energy and enhancing loan limits for housing.

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) INAR.NS advanced 3%, while HDFC Bank HDBK.NS jumped 1%, with Citi and Jefferies calling it a beneficiary of the revised PSL guidelines.

        Ultratech Cement ULTC.NS rose 3%, while ACC ACC.NS and Ambuja Cements ABUJ.NS gained 1% and 1.5%, respectively, after UBS called an end of rough patch on likely demand rebound for the cement sector in fiscal year 2026.

The broader, more domestically focussed smallcaps .NIFSMCP100 were down 0.5%, while the midcaps .NIFMDCP100 traded flat.

 (Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Sonia Cheema)

 ((VivekKumar.M@thomsonreuters.com;))