By Sethuraman N R and Hritam Mukherjee
BENGALURU – Indian benchmarks rose to record highs on Tuesday, lifted by a surge in heavyweight financial and bank stocks that have lagged sectoral peers so far this year.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.6% at 23,668 as of 01:13 p.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.7% to 77,875.
Financials gained 1.7% and banks rose 1.6%. The two indexes were the top sectoral gainers.
The outperformance in banking stocks is the primary boost to markets, which are lacking any major domestic trigger, said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president, research, at Religare Broking.
These stocks, said analysts, will continue to see buying as they have been laggards this year, with their 9% rise well below the 24-43% jump in metals, autos and realty stocks.
The benchmark Nifty 50 index has surged more than 11% from the dip seen on June 4, in a post-election rally.
The domestically focussed small-caps also hit record highs, when they rose more than 1% early in the session led by gains in Amara Raja Energy and Mobility.
However, they pared some gains to trade 0.3% higher.
Amara Raja’s shares advanced 16% after the battery maker signed a licensing agreement with a unit of China-based Gotion High Tech to produce lithium-ion batteries in India.
“We will see more stock-specific moves in the small- and mid-caps. This will keep happening until the quarterly earnings season,” said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.
Meanwhile, Bandhan Bank fell 2% after the Reserve Bank of India appointed a director to the lender’s board, a move generally seen as an increase in oversight of a bank’s operations.
Happiest Minds Technologies fell 8% on multiple block deals.
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Janane Venkatraman)
