Indian shares snapped a two-day fall on Friday, as falling bond yields and the rupee's appreciation post Reserve Bank of India's surprise move to buy Rs 10,000 crore worth of bonds from the market to ease the liquidity crunch boosted investor sentiment.
Strong infrastructure output data for February and a continuing decline in the prices of oil on talk from consumer nations about a possible strategic oil reserves release also helped investors shrug off mixed Asian cues, weighed down by weaker-than-expected data on U.S. jobless claims and Japanese industrial production.
The benchmark 30-share Sensex is currently trading near the day's high at 17,245, up 186 points or 1.09 percent from its previous close, while the broader Nifty index is up 60 points or 1.17 percent at 5,239.
Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tata Power, Sun Pharma, DLF, Coal India, TCS, BHEL, Sterlite, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel are among the prominent gainers in the Sensex pack, rising between 1 percent and 2 percent.
Second-line stocks are also following suit, with the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rising more than a percent each.
Tata Consultancy Services is moving up 1.6 percent on bagging an IT services contract from Malaysia-based financial services group AmBank. Rival Infosys is gaining 1.3 percent and Wipro is edging up 0.3 percent after the U.S. Consulate reportedly said it had no plans to hike application fees for H-1B visas.
Coal India is rising 1.4 percent on reports that its board has refused to abide by the instructions of the Prime Minister's Office to sign long-term fuel supply agreements with power utilities. NTPC is up half a percent as the state-run power producer said it had commissioned the Unit I of Vallur thermal power project.
Godrej Properties is adding a percent after announcing a redevelopment project in Mumbai. United Breweries Holdings and Kingfisher Airlines are gaining about a percent each on stake sale talk.
Suzlon Energy is up nearly 2 percent even as the wind turbine maker made an announcement regarding a strike at SE Forge, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. Essar Oil is rallying 2.6 percent after completing the Rs 8,300-crore capacity expansion of its Vadinar refinery.
Ashok Leyland is gaining 2.3 percent as the Hinduja Group firm unveiled plans to foray into the aerospace business.
by RTT Staff Writer
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