Indian shares rise ahead of key blue-chip earnings

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares rose on Tuesday ahead of a slew of earnings reports from blue-chip companies, including Maruti Suzuki India, even as new cases of COVID-19 in the country held above 300,000 for a sixth consecutive day.

The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.53% to 14,562.1 by 0441 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.54% at 48,649.84. The indexes had posted their third straight weekly loss last week on concerns over surging infections.

Cases in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, have dipped since its Maharashtra state entered lockdown earlier this month. Other states such as New Delhi and Karnataka have also imposed lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus.

“The steady decline in COVID-19 cases in Mumbai is a great relief and if this is an indication of the second wave curve flattening by, say, mid-May, the market might take cues from that,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said in a note.

New virus cases in the world’s second-most populous country rose by 323,144, health ministry’s data showed on Tuesday. The number was below a record high seen on Monday.

The real economic impact of the current virus surge appears small compared with COVID-19’s first wave, and indicators like labour force participation rate have remained resilient, Nomura economists Sonal Varma and Aurodeep Nandi said in a note.

Among stocks, conglomerate Reliance boosted the benchmark indexes with a 2.2% jump, while metal producer Hindalco Industries climbed 5.8%.

Castrol India rose as much as 7.3% after the company reported a jump in quarterly profit and revenue.

Ahead of their quarterly results, Nifty 50 components Maruti Suzuki and Britannia Industries were largely flat. Axis Bank fell 2% and Bajaj Finance rose 1%.

Other Asian shares slipped ahead of the keenly watched two-day Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates, beginning on Tuesday.

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