Indian shares extend gains on banks, IT firms

Thursday,   25-Feb-2021   10:04 AM (IST)

Indian shares advanced on Thursday for a third straight session, joining a global rally after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell quashed rate hike fears, with financials and IT stocks accounting for most of the gains. The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 1.08% at 14,146.95 by 0355 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.06% to 51,325.46. On Wednesday, Indian equities closed sharply higher after trading was halted on the NSE for nearly four hours due to a technical issue. The National Stock Exchange, India's biggest bourse, said on Thursday it was awaiting "detailed root cause analysis" from telecom service providers and was in touch with the market regulator about Wednesday's outage. Boosting investor sentiment globally was Powell's reiteration that interest rates would remain low in the United States. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1.7%. In Mumbai, HDFC Bank and IT services provider Infosys were the top boosts to the Nifty, rising more than 1% each. All major sectoral indexes were in positive territory. The Nifty private bank index led the gains with a 1.8% rise. Financial stocks rose sharply on Wednesday after India allowed private-sector banks to carry out government transactions. The Nifty private bank index had gained more than 18% in February, as of last close. The Nifty IT index advanced 1.04% on Thursday. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries RELI.NS extended gains to a third session, rising 1.3%.