Indian shares close at record high on Reliance, HDFC boost

Tuesday,   12-Jan-2021   04:15 PM (IST)

Indian shares closed at another record high on Tuesday, driven by gains in heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank as investors looked past a central bank report that warned of rising bad loans among the country's lenders. The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.54% to 14,563 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.5% to 49,517.11. Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank were the top boosts to the Nifty 50, rising 3.2% and 2%, respectively. Late on Monday, the Financial Stability and Development Council said in a report that the gross non-performing assets of Indian banks might increase from 7.5% in September 2020 to 14.8% under a severe stress scenario. The Nifty bank index that fell nearly 1% in the morning session, ended up 1.1%, while the Nifty public sector bank index hit a more than 10-month high, surging 6%. Shares of Gail (India) Ltd rose as much as 5.8% to a 15-month high of 143.5 rupees after the state-owned gas distribution firm said it would consider a proposal to buy back shares. Tata Motors rose 7.7%, buoyed by a double-digit increase in China sales of its luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover. Indian investors now await retail inflation data due later in the day, with a Reuters poll predicting it fell sharply last month, landing within the Reserve Bank of India's target range.