(Reuters) -Indian shares opened higher on Monday, led by private lender ICICI Bank, after it surpassed second-quarter profit estimates on healthy loan demand.
The NSE Nifty 50 rose 0.33% to 24,263.3 points as of 9:28 a.m. IST, while BSE Sensex inched 0.41% higher to 79,770.2.
ICICI Bank, the third heaviest Nifty 50 stock, rose 2.5% and led gains in banks and financials, which are up about 1% each.
Better asset quality and the highest current account-savings account growth among peers have been encouraging signs from the private lender’s results, according to three analysts.
Ten of the 13 major sectors logged gains. The broader, more domestically focused small- and mid-caps rose about 0.4% each
Among individual stocks, non-bank lender Shriram Finance rose 5% after reporting a rise in profit and improvement in asset quality in the September quarter.
Bandhan Bank gained 8%. The lender’s profit not only beat estimates but its quality of microfinance loans has also held- up, confirming that the bank can outperform peers in this cycle, said Jefferies in a note.
Real estate developer DLF rose 4.1% on posting higher second-quarter profit on sales of housing units launched in previous quarters.
State-owned Coal India dropped 2% after reporting a fall in net profit in the September quarter.
($1 = 84.0780 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Janane Venkatraman)
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