BENGALURU: Indian shares ended higher on Friday, narrowing their weekly losses sparked by a brutal sell-off earlier this week, as a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. unemployment claims allayed fears of a recession in the world’s top economy.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 1.04% to 24,367.5, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 1.04% to 79,705.91.
The IT index jumped 1.6% after lower-than-expected weekly unemployment claims calmed recession fears in the United States, which is a significant source of revenue for the sector. All sectoral indexes advanced.
The IT index lost 1.9% on Thursday ahead of the jobs data.
India’s Nifty 50 and Sensex have lost about 1.5% each this week, their steepest weekly drop since the end of May, as concerns over U.S. slowdown following a bleak July jobs report and unwinding of yen carry trades spurred a global sell-off and triggered profit-booking.
While India’s unhindered growth prospects make it resilient to the current global uncertainty, rich valuations could trigger bouts of profit-booking, said Seshadri Sen and Arthkumar Gandhi of Emkay Global.
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“If a correction does crystallise, we would see that as an entry opportunity for longer-term investors,” they said. Among individual stocks, Eicher Motors rose 5.54% after the maker of Royal Enfield motorcycles beat June-quarter profit estimates, leading gains in the auto index, which was up 1.72%.
Shares of ONGC rose 3.05% after Morgan Stanley hiked stock’s target price to a Street high of 430 rupees from 302 rupees, and reiterated an “overweight” rating.
ONGC was the among the top gainers in energy, oil & gas and public sector enterprises, all of which were up 0.9%-1.4%.
The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps gained 0.56% and 0.87%, respectively on the day, chiming with the upbeat momentum in the benchmark indexes.
Ola Electric Mobility surged 20% over its issue price in its trading debut, as investors bet on the rising adoption of electric vehicles in the world’s largest market for two-wheelers.
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