Sensex, Nifty Rise to Another Record as Coal India Paces Advance

Written by
Ameya Karve
Written by

Ameya Karve

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(Bloomberg) -- Indian shares advanced to a record for a second straight day, with the benchmark indexes and the gauges for mid- and small-sized companies touching new highs. An index of software stocks paced gains, rising the most among the 19 sector indices compiled by BSE Ltd.

The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.6 percent to 34,352.79 at the 3:30 p.m. close in Mumbai, while the S&P BSE MidCap and the S&P BSE SmallCap indexes added 1 percent each. The NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 0.6 percent.

Coal India Ltd. -- the world's biggest producer of the fuel -- advanced 3.3 percent, the steepest among Sensex and Nifty companies, after the coal minister said the company needed to raise its daily output to 2 million tons to achieve its target.

“Markets are touching new highs driven by liquidity and a global rally, as well as before earnings reports for October to December,” said Sushant Kumar, a fund manager at Raay Global Investments Pvt. in Mumbai. “Infrastructure and manufacturing may throw a positive surprise on the earnings front,” he said.

Infosys Ltd., the country's second-biggest software exporter, rose 2.4 percent and contributed most to the advance in key gauges by weighting. The company is CLSA India Pvt.'s top pick for 2018 due to “reasonable earnings growth and re-rating potential.”

Infosys boosted the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 1.4 percent gain. Only the S&P BSE Telecom Index dropped among the sector gauges, retreating 2.6 percent. A reduction in tariffs by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. will pressurize average revenue per user of the company and its rivals, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Pvt. said in a note.

The results season kicks off on Jan. 11 when IndusInd Bank Ltd. reports earnings.

Indian stock funds got a record 1.33 trillion rupees ($21 billion) of inflows in the first nine months of the fiscal year that began April 1 versus about 508 billion rupees in the previous year, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ameya Karve in Mumbai at akarve@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Margo Towie