Bengaluru:
Domestic shares settled higher on Friday and clocked a 1.7 per cent gain for the week, as investors stayed hopeful of a pick up in business activity in a coronavirus-hit economy and took their cue from a tech-driven rally on Wall Street.
India’s blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index gave up some of its gains from earlier on Friday, as conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd turned negative to settle 0.7 per cent lower.
Banking stocks rose 1.36 per cent, led by a 2.5 per cent gain in HDFC Bank Ltd. Among state-run lenders, the Bank of Maharashtra gained 15 per cent.
The Nifty 50 ended up 0.53 per cent at 11,371.60, about 0.3 per cent shy of its more than five-month closing high on Wednesday. The S&P BSE Sensex closed up 0.56 per cent at 38,434.72.
Investors were counting on business activity bouncing back in India, which has helped beaten-down stocks in sectors such as real estate see a revival, analysts said on Friday.
The Nifty realty index settled 1.24 per cent higher on Friday. The index has surged 11.5 per cent in August alone, but is still down 25 per cent since the start of the year.
In signs of support to business activity, India’s capital New Delhi allowed hotels and weekly outdoor markets to re-open this week after months of restrictions, while the government said it had paid out Rs 1 lakh crore ($13.3 billion) in loans to support small businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global stock markets, meanwhile, rose on Friday following a tech-driven Wall Street rally that powered the Nasdaq to a record closing high, but tepid economic data and lofty valuations reined in the advances.
