Indian Stocks Halt Four-Day Winning Streak as Lenders Decline
Indian stocks fell as investors weighed the extent of recent gains after a rally fueled by Modi’s victory.
(Bloomberg) -- Indian stocks fell as investors weighed the extent of recent gains after a four-day rally fueled by an state election win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Index each fell 0.2 percent at the close in Mumbai. Fourteen of the 19 sectoral sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, with a gauge of real estate companies rising the most. Banks were the biggest decliners, with HDFC Bank Ltd. down 0.9 percent. Tata Motors Ltd. A shares and Wipro Ltd. were the best performers on the Sensex.
“Indian stocks were subdued after crossing new highs amid a lack of positive triggers and after four days of strong gains,” said Sageraj Bariya, vice president of institutional sales at East India Securities. “Indian equities tracked muted Asian markets.”
India’s main stock gauges reached fresh records Tuesday. While both are up 27 percent or more this year, gains have cooled in recent months, in part over concern about high valuations.
With inflation above target and growth seen as below potential, experts say the central bank is likely to keep interest rates unchanged through the coming year. The benchmark repurchase rate will stay at 6 percent until at least the first quarter of 2019, according to most economists in a Bloomberg survey published this month.
To contact the reporter on this story: Santanu Chakraborty in Mumbai at schakrabor11@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Kurt Schussler, Namitha Jagadeesh
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