Indian shares extend gains to third day, global slowdown concerns linger

Wednesday,   18-May-2022   10:35 AM (IST)

Indian shares rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, helped by gains in some financial and IT stocks, even as investors fretted about the impact of interest rate hikes on global economic growth. The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.67% at 16,368.30, as of 0354 GMT, with most major sub-indexes trading in positive territory, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.44% to 54,554.89. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel rose 1.6% and was among the top percentage gainers on the Nifty 50. The company late on Tuesday reported a 22.3% jump in fourth-quarter revenue. Bajaj Finance and Infosys were also among the top gainers on the Nifty 50, rising more than 1% each. Cigarettes-to-hotel conglomerate ITC was down 0.15%, while airline operator InterGlobe Aviation Ltd rose 4.2%, ahead of their quarterly earnings results. Nifty's IT index advanced the most among sub-indexes, rising 1.3%. Broader Asia struggled to carry recent gains, as worries about surging inflation and the drag from rate rises crept back in to the global growth outlook. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday pledged that the U.S. central bank would ratchet interest rates as high as needed to kill a surge in inflation.