Indian shares rise as banks gain; PNB Housing falls 4% on court verdict

BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian shares edged higher on Tuesday, supported by private banks and financial stocks, while PNB Housing Finance tumbled following a court restriction on disclosing the results of shareholder votes on a deal with a group of investors.

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after Sensex surpassed the 50,000 level for the first time, in Mumbai, India, January 21, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

By 0507 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index climbed 0.36% to 16,315 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.4% to 54,632.40.

“Markets are mostly driven by a handful of Nifty 50 stocks as many have run beyond their fundamentals … investors are taking profits and new buyers are not emerging,” said AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital in Mumbai.

Investors are pouring money into several upcoming public offerings even though there are doubts on the quality of those IPOs, Prabhakar said.

Companies including CarTrade Tech, construction material maker Nuvoco Vistas, chemical company Chemplast Sanmar, hospital chain Aashka Hospital will open IPO subscriptions this week.

The Nifty bank index rose 0.6%, driven mostly by 1.6% gains in Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and 0.8% gain in HDFC Bank Ltd.

Analysts said the sub-index is seeing some traction after a subdued performance in the past couple of months.

PNB Housing Finance fell 4% after an Indian court delivered a split verdict over the company’s 400 billion rupee ($5.4 billion) share allocation to a group of investors led by Carlyle Group, a judgement seen by Reuters showed.

Nifty 50 components Coal India Ltd and Power Grid Corp LtdNS> are due to report earnings later in the day.

Shares of Future Retail rose 9.4% after a report that Amazon.com Inc was preparing a bailout plan for the retail conglomerate if the Singapore International Arbitration Centre rules against a planned takeover by Reliance Industries Ltd.

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