BENGALURU, May 26 (Reuters) - Indian shares bucked broader
market weakness to end higher on Thursday as investors picked up
beaten-down financial and metal stocks after three straight
sessions of losses.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rallied in the last hour of
trading to close 0.90% higher at 16,170.15, while the S&P BSE
Sensex advanced 0.94% to 54,252.53. Both the indexes
had lost nearly 1.5% in the past three sessions.
"After the heavy selloff, the market showed signs of
exhaustion and could bounce for the short to medium term," said
Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
The gains contrasted with global peers, which were trading
mixed after the latest U.S. Federal Reserve minutes confirmed
the central bank's intent to tighten monetary policy quickly to
control inflation.
Worries about surging price pressures and aggressive
monetary policy tightening globally have sparked a flight of
foreign capital from Indian equities this month, with investors
selling a net $4.79 billion worth of shares so far in May, more
than twice the amount they did in the whole of April.
"Inflation is a concern globally and the Fed is saying that
they won't hesitate to raise rates to keep it down. But the
market will be watching the numbers till they start easing out
and until then, there will always be this overhang," said Samrat
Dasgupta, chief executive officer of Esquire Capital Investment
Advisors.
Underpinning the gains on Thursday, Nifty's metal
, financials and banks
sub-indexes rose between 2% and 3%.
State Bank of India, JSW Steel and Tata
Steel were among the top gainers on the Nifty 50
index, advancing between 3% and 5%.
The Nifty IT index closed 1.3% higher after it
slumped to its lowest since June in the previous session.
Colgate-Palmolive (India) rose 2.4% after
reporting a rise in quarterly profit, while Shalimar Paints
surged as much as 10% after it reported a smaller loss
for the March quarter.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru, additional reporting by
Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Aditya Soni)