Indian shares rose for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, with gains seen across the board, as Asian peers inched higher after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sounded less hawkish than expected in a testimony to Congress.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.54% to 18,152.40 by 0440 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.57% to 60,964.11. The blue-chip indexes have clocked roughly 2% gains for two consecutive weeks and are already up 2% this week.
Asian shares rose on Wednesday and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 recorded overnight their best sessions of 2022, after Powell said that the economy could handle the COVID-19 surge and tighter monetary policy. [MKTS/GLOB]
In Mumbai, 40 of the 50 stocks on the Nifty 50 index were trading in positive territory.
Nifty's realty sub-index advanced the most with a 3.2% rise, bringing its weekly gain so far to nearly 6%.
Nifty's metal index, which dropped 1.9% in the previous session, rose over 1%, led by a 3.3% rise in state-run mineral producer NMDC.
Nifty's IT index was flat. Technology major Infosys was up 0.6%, while Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro were unchanged. The companies will be reporting their third-quarter results later in the day.
One cannot rule out the possibility of a consolidation in markets and going forward, earnings numbers and the upcoming budget will determine further direction, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking said.
IT stocks added 55% in 2020 and 59.6% in 2021 as investors bet on demand boom as people turned online during the pandemic.
Telecom operator Vodafone India, which slumped over 20% in the previous session, jumped 6.4%.
Meanwhile, the country logged 194,720 fresh COVID-19 cases and 442 deaths.
Eyes are also on consumer price inflation data due later in the day, with a Reuters poll of 41 economists showing retail inflation spiking to 5.80% last month from 4.91% in November.
