(Reuters) -Indian shares opened marginally higher on Tuesday, led by gains in IT firms after HCLTech raised its revenue growth forecast, while a drop in global crude prices propped up oil refining and paint stocks.
The Nifty 50 index was up 0.19% at 25,176 points as of 9:31 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.2% to 82,153.9.
Eleven of the 13 major sub-sectors advanced in early trade.
Global oil prices slid after a media report said Israel is willing not to strike Iranian oil targets, easing fears of a supply disruption. [O/R]
Lower oil prices bode well for India, the world’s third-largest importer, as the commodity makes up a significant part of the country’s import bill.
Asian Paints and Berger Paints rose 1.5% and 2.3%, respectively. State-run oil marketing firms such as HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil Corp, rose 1.4%-2.8%.
Lower oil prices benefit paintmakers and oil refiners, which count crude as a major raw material.
HCLTech, India’s third-largest IT services company, advanced 1.2% after it raised the lower-end of its fiscal 2025 revenue growth forecast, citing better-than-expected performance in the first-half of the year. This lifted IT stocks 0.7%.
Among individual stocks, Angel One jumped after the brokerage’s September-quarter profit rose due to a jump in trading activity.
Heavweight Reliance Industries fell 0.5% after reporting a drop in second-quarter profit.
Meanwhile, data on Monday showed that higher food prices pushed India’s retail inflation to a nine-month high in September, which economists said could push a domestic rate cut to early next year instead of a reduction in December.
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonia Cheema)
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