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Indian shares rose nearly 0.5 per cent, led by lenders such as State Bank of India, after the government defended its reforms approach and on continued hopes that the central bank would lower interest rates in June.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended the session higher by 117.94 points or 0.43 per cent at 27,324 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended up by 38.15 points or 0.46 per cent at 8,262.35.
Sectoral indices
Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index gained the most by 0.81 per cent, followed by TECk 0.69 per cent, FMCG 0.67 per cent and IT 0.65 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 1.33 per cent, followed by metal 1.05 per cent, power 0.25 per cent and oil & gas 0.06 per cent.
Gainers, losers
Top five Sensex gainers were SBIN 2.39%, HDFC 1.8%, Bharti Airtel 1.8%, M&M 1.42% and Infosys 1.3%, while the major losers were NTPC 2.05%, VEDL 2.01%, Coal India 0.91%, GAIL 0.85% and ICICI Bank 0.76%.
Reforms, taxation woes
Indian stocks have become one of the worst performing markets among Asian equities in 2015 so far due to the slow pace of reforms and concerns around retrospective taxation of foreign investors.
The Union Government had on Thursday defended its approach to reforms, days after it succumbed to political pressure in Parliament and delayed the passage of key land and tax reforms, a move that has tarnished Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first year in office.
Banks were also helped by moderation in bad loan ratios of some of the state-run lenders for January-March, even as central bank governor Raghuram Rajan had on Thursday said India’s bad loans situation may not have peaked yet.
“Government is moving towards right direction on reforms; the pace can be different though in coming times,’’ said Pankaj Murarka, head of equities at Axis Mutual Fund.
Global markets
Global shares were on track for a weekly rise on Friday, with Europe following Asia higher, as bond-market jitters eased after a rollercoaster unwind of bets linked to the European Central Bank’s stimulus plan.
European bond yields were down across the board and top shares were in positive territory, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 equity index up 0.4 per cent, with traders pointing to a calmer end to the week after the Ascension Day holiday on Thursday and recent jumps in German yields.
The MSCI World equity index was up 0.2 per cent, heading for a weekly gain of 0.7 per cent and not far from an all-time high hit last month.
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