India's Sensex Advances to Snap Nine-Session Losing Streak
Most Indian stocks retreated as the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute added to investor anxiety.
(Bloomberg) --
Indian stocks advanced, snapping their longest stretch of losses since February, as some investors felt nine days of declines to be excessive.
The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.6% to 37,318.53 in Mumbai after falling as much as 0.4% earlier in the session. That avoided the longest ever losing streak for the benchmark gauge. The NSE Nifty 50 Index gained 0.7%.
Stocks have been weighed down in recent days as investors weighed their positions ahead of next week’s national ballot results and fretted over the escalating U.S.-China trade dispute.
The seventh and last phase of voting for India’s marathon elections takes place on May 19, with vote counting and results scheduled for release on May 23. On the earnings front, 17 of the 27 Nifty companies that have reported so far have either met or exceeded estimates.
Strategist View
- “The market is in an oversold territory but it will be too early to say that we are out of the woods after this gain,” said Jitendra Panda, managing director at Peerless Securities Ltd. in Kolkata. “Foreign investors have been selling and we will have to see how it pans out over the next couple of days.”
- “There was a build-up of positions in the run-up to the elections and it’s natural that some investors may wish to book profits as the event is close,” said Joseph Thomas, head of research at Emkay Wealth Management. “Amid this, the U.S-China trade dispute is further adding to the negative environment.”
The Numbers
- All but two of 19 sector indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, led by a gauge of telecom companies
- Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index advance, increasing 2.3%
- Sun Pharma had the largest gain, rising 5.4%
- Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. was the biggest drag on the index and had the biggest drop, declining 1.7%
- Jet Airways slumped 7.3% after its chief financial officer resigned
To contact the reporters on this story: Nupur Acharya in Mumbai at nacharya7@bloomberg.net;John Xavier in Mumbai at jxavier20@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Margo Towie, Kurt Schussler
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