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Weekly Wrap: Turkish Fever Grips Rupee; Sensex, Nifty Cheer Earnings

Sun Pharma posted its best weekly performance since March 2015 on strong earnings.

A security officer stands guard next to a bronze bull statue at the entrance to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai. (Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg)
A security officer stands guard next to a bronze bull statue at the entrance to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai. (Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg)

Indian equity benchmarks rose for the fourth week in a row as investors ignored rupee’s fall to a record low and focused on corporate earnings.

For the week ended Aug. 17, S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.21 percent to 37,947.88 and the broader NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.36 percent to an all-time closing high of 11,470.75.

The week marked the end of the earnings season for the quarter ended June. Three-fourths of the Nifty 50 companies either surpassed or met forecasts, the highest in at least three quarters, according to data compiled by BloombergQuint.

“The earnings season was good; even PSU banks didn’t disappoint this time around and we are probably going into better times,” Deven Choksey, managing director of KR Choksey Securities, told BloombergQuint over the phone. Successful implementation of the goods and services tax aided the earnings along with infrastructure projects, he said.

The ongoing rally, however, is driven by select index heavyweight stocks, he said, adding that India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. contributed during this week’s trade.

The Nifty Pharma Index was the top sectoral gainer, climbing over 6 percent led by Sun Pharma after its June-quarter earnings surpassed estimates.

Sun Pharma was also the top Nifty gainer during the week. The stock jumped 12.55 percent to Rs 623.50, posting its best weekly performance since March 2015. That was driven by its Rs 983-crore profit in the first quarter compared with a loss of Rs 425 crore in the year-ago period.

Weekly Wrap: Turkish Fever Grips Rupee; Sensex, Nifty Cheer Earnings

The Indian rupee was the worst performing Asian currency this week.

The local unit weakened 1.89 percent to a record low of 70.16 a dollar, weighed down by the Turkish lira-led emerging market currency rout. A growing trade deficit added to the negative sentiment. The data released on Tuesday by the Commerce Ministry showed that the gap between India’s exports and imports widened to $18 billion in July, the most in five years, because of a higher oil import bill.

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