By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares rose on Monday, led by financials, after improved quarterly results from heavyweights Reliance Industries Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd let investors shrug off concerns of a lacklustre earnings season.
The Nifty 50 was up 0.05% at 17,632.90, as of 10:15 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.06%. Both the indexes had risen nearly 0.5% during the session.
Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials rising 0.5%.
Private lender ICICI Bank posted a 30% jump in March quarter profit, helped by improved net interest income and loan growth.
Analysts at brokerage Motilal Oswal said the lender’s quarter saw “flawless execution.”
ICICI Bank climbed over 2% on Monday and was among the top Nifty 50 gainers.
Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company, reported a 19% jump in fourth-quarter profit, aided by the strong performance in the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) segment, post-market hours on Friday.
The stock rose over 1.3% in the early session. Put together, Reliance and ICICI Bank account for nearly 20% of the total weightage in Nifty 50.
“Following the strong earnings of the two companies, the overall picture is positive,” said Deven Mehata, equity research analyst at Choice Broking.
“Investors should buy on dips with suitable stop-losses below 17,500, which is a good support level.”
Among other individual stocks, HDFC Life Insurance Company Ltd surged over 8% after the Reserve Bank of India allowed HDFC Bank to increase its shareholding in HDFC Life. The stock was the top Nifty 50 gainer. [nL4N36O2CJ]
The gains were capped by more than 1% slide in pharma index, dragged by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. The drugmaker lost over 3% on halting shipments from Mohali facility to take corrective actions after US FDA inspection. The stock was the top Nifty 50 loser.
($1 = 82.0300 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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