By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares rose for the fifth straight day on Wednesday, aided by a late-session resurgence in Reliance and an uptick in banking and media stocks on strong quarterly earnings.
The Nifty 50 index closed 0.42% at 19,833.15, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.45% to 67,097.44, closing above the 67,000 mark for the first time.
The midcaps and smallcaps indexes rose 0.68% and 0.78%, respectively, after declines in the previous session.
“Expect the gradual up move in the market to continue given the positive macroeconomic factors and healthy earnings so far,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head – retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
“Investors should utilise the ‘buy-on-dips’ strategy at record high levels.”
Reliance Industries, among the highly weighted stocks on the Nifty, rose 1.2% to a 52-week high, gaining for the third session in a row ahead of the demerger of its financial services unit on Thursday and earnings on Friday.
Bank of Maharashtra climbed 5.40% after reporting strong quarterly results, and helped lift public sector banks nearly 2%.
IndusInd Bank rose over 2% after its quarterly profit beat market estimates, helped by loan growth and a drop in provisions.
TV18 Broadcast jumped over 9% after reporting a rise in June-quarter profit, and powered an over 1% gain in the media index.
Among other stocks, NTPC rose nearly 3%, topping the Nifty 50, after Goldman Sachs made it its top pick in the power sector.
IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States, ended flat after a four-session rally on firming expectations that the Federal Reserve was nearing the end of its monetary policy tightening cycle.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
