Indian shares end higher on strong corporate earnings

BENGALURU: Indian shares ended higher on Thursday, with IT and financial stocks leading the gains, as a slew of strong corporate earnings boosted investor sentiment.

The blue-chip NSE Nity 50 index ended 1.23% higher at 15,824.05, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended up 1.22% at 52,837.21.

The Nity Bank Index, a major drag on the index earlier this week, ended 0.76% higher, with IDFC jumping as much as 19.1% to hit its highest since Jan. 16, 2018 ater the Reserve Bank of India allowed the non-banking financial company to exit as a founder of IDFC First Bank ater a lock-in period of five years is over.

IT major Wipro gained 2.8% ater it announced its commitment to invest $1 billion in cloud capabilities over the next three years. IT stocks gained 1.8%.

Shares of Jubilant Food, the Indian franchise partner of Domino’s Pizza, gained 12% ater growth in its delivery services contributed to quarterly profit of 695.2 million rupees ($9.33 million), compared to a 739 mln rupee loss a year ago.

Bajaj Auto’s quarterly profit doubled to 10.61 billion rupees ($142.70m), as the two- and three-wheeler maker reported selling more than 1 million vehicles.

Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever posted a rise in quarterly profit, but came in just under analysts’ expectations, dragging shares down 2.3%.

Nity metals ended up 2.9%, while lender Bajaj Finance and insurance company ICICI Prudential lited the Nity Financial Services Index 1.26% higher.