By Hritam Mukherjee
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares inched higher in choppy trading on Monday, as a drop in the state-owned lenders limited gains from the country’s information technology stocks on rising hopes of U.S. rate cuts.
The blue-chip Nifty 50 edged 0.1% higher to 22,499 points as of 11:25 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex increased by 0.3% to 74,081.
Seven major sectoral indexes out of 13 were trading in the green.
The Nifty PSU index, which houses state-owned banks, slid 4% after the Reserve Bank of India’s draft guidelines on project finance proposed lenders set aside higher provisions for under-construction infrastructure projects.
Power Finance Corp, REC and IREDA fell between 4% and 10%.
“Since PSU banks have higher exposure to corporate and infrastructure loans, it will hurt their margins if the norms are implemented. That’s why state-owned banks are reacting negatively,” Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said.
“At near record highs and with results mostly justifying elevated valuations, there is some bit of profit booking which is normal.”
On the flip side, heavyweight financial stocks were up 0.2%, buoyed by a 5% jump in Kotak Mahindra Bank after it beat quarterly profit estimates.
Meanwhile, U.S. rate-sensitive IT stocks ticked 1% higher, after cooler-than-expected U.S. job growth data on Friday raised investor expectations to two Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, up from just one cut before the data.
Among other stocks, Britannia surged about 10%, the most on the Nifty 50, after its fourth-quarter margin growth impressed analysts.
However, its fellow Nifty constituents Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports lost about 3% each, continuing their fall from last week after the markets regulator issued them notices of regulatory violations.
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Savio D’Souza)
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