Sensex, Nifty rise; financial stocks lead
(Reuters) – The Sensex and Nifty rose on Friday, with financials stocks such as Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) boosting the indexes after it said it is selling two of its units to Quikr India.
Mortgage lender HDFC said it is selling HDFC Developers and HDFC Realty to online classified advertising platform Quikr India and added it has bought a stake in Quikr.
Housing Development Finance Corp rose 0.3 percent.
The Nifty was up 0.4 percent at 10,486.10 as of 0528 GMT, while the Sensex rose 0.5 percent to 33,939.59.
“Things are looking reasonably good. Earnings are expected to be decent. Some of the key concerns like the fear that BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) might lose Gujarat elections, implications of flattening yields in the U.S., crude oil concerns or domestic inflation..all these seem to have abated,” said Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer at Sanctum Wealth Management.
“Investors are getting comfortable with valuations. As long as growth comes through, markets are going to move higher, although at a gradual pace.”
For the week, the NSE index was on track to end 1.5 percent higher, while the BSE index looked set to gain 1.4 percent.
Among the gainers, state-run lenders such as State Bank of India rose 1.6 percent, pushing the Nifty PSU bank index 1.6 percent higher.
Refining stocks such as Reliance Industries Ltd gained, as oil prices dipped away from 2015 highs reached in the previous session weighed down by rising U.S. output.
Reliance Industries rose 0.8 percent.
Indian markets will be closed on Monday for Christmas.
