By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -Indian shares fell in morning trading on Thursday, in contrast to their Asian peers, as Hindalco Industries led a slide in metal stocks after its U.S. unit reported a lower quarterly profit.
The NSE Nifty 50 fell 1.18% to 24,196.65 points as of 10:29 a.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex shed 1.16% to 79,445.7.
Hindalco slid 7% after its U.S. unit, Novelis, reported a lower profit. It was the biggest decliner on the Nifty and dragged metals stocks down around 1.5%.
Helping curb the losses was Apollo Hospitals’s 6.4% jump, the most on the Nifty, after it beat second-quarter profit estimates on strong healthcare services demand.
However, the broader, more domestically focused small-cap index and mid-caps fell about 0.4% each, outperforming the benchmark indexes, driven by gains in BSE and Kalyan Jewellers following their inclusion in a key MSCI index.
The losses in the Indian benchmarks were in contrast to their Asian peers, which tracked the surge in Wall Street indexes to record highs overnight as markets celebrated, in part, the clarity of U.S. election outcome after Donald Trump’s win.[MKTS/GLOB]
The Nifty and Sensex had jumped 1.1% on Wednesday, their biggest single-day gain in more than six weeks, after Trump’s victory.
Trump’s stated policies such as reducing corporate tax rates will help Indian information technology companies, while a focus on the China +1 strategy will benefit several domestic sectors, according to analysts.
With the U.S. election done, the focus will shift to the Federal Reserve’s rate decision and commentary, due after the Indian markets close.
The Fed is expected to cut rates by 25 basis points, which, in general, makes emerging markets such as India more attractive to foreign investors.
However, foreigners have pulled money from Indian stocks for the last 27 sessions, redirecting funds to China after recent stimulus measures — a scenario that could be threatened by Trump, who started a trade war with Beijing during his first term as U.S. president. ($1 = 84.2760 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Savio D’Souza)
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