AK Prabhakar

Investors will watch out for the Indian central bank after a source said the RBI was prepared to sell another USD 100 billion to defend the rupee from rapid falls

Indian shares on Thursday hovered near a six-week high, boosted by private lender IndusInd Bank after its quarterly profit surged, while the rupee weakened to be just shy of a record low it touched earlier this week. The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) rose 0.3 per cent at 16,569, as of 0527 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) was up 0.27 per cent at 55,549.74. Both the indexes closed at a more than six-week high on Wednesday.

“The recent rally (in Indian markets) is being led by banks and automobiles. There has been a growth in loans in banks’ results, and non-performing assets have dropped, which has helped them to improve margins,” said AK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI Capital Market. “Chip crisis is easing off and raw material costs have come down for automobile companies and they have passed on the hikes to customers. The market is expecting better margins,” Prabhakar said.

The Nifty 50 index has risen about 5 per cent so far this month. The Bank Nifty index (.NSEBANK) and the Nifty Auto index (.NIFTYAUTO) are up 8 per cent and 7.4 per cent, respectively. IndusInd Bank (INBK.NS) jumped 6.3 per cent after it reported a 64 per cent  surge in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday, beating analysts’ estimates, on the back of a 30% drop in provisions and 16% growth in net interest income.

Wipro (WIPR.NS) cut early losses to trade up 0.5 per cent on seeing strong IT services revenue growth in the second quarter after its June-quarter profit declined about 21 per cent. Tata Communications (TATA.NS) surged 9 per cent after it posted about 84 per cent jump in profit for the June quarter. Meanwhile, investors will watch out for the Indian central bank after a source said the RBI was prepared to sell another USD 100 billion to defend the rupee from rapid falls.

(Reuters)