Mumbai: Markets recovered from day’s lows, helped by gains in European equities and a second session of recovery in the rupee after it hit an all-time low of 56.40 earlier on Thursday.
The recovery came even as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan reversed early gains to slip 0.7%, hitting its lowest since late.
Lenders State Bank of India and HDFC Bank led the gainers. Tata Steel shares were also up on bargain hunting after the stock’s large underperformance so far in May.
Shares in the steel producer have fallen 14% so far in May compared to a 6.3% decline in the benchmark index in the same period.
The benchmark index was down 0.1%, recovering 0.6% from the day’s low. The broader NSE 50-share index was down 0.15%.
Oil and Natural Gas Corporation falls 1.6%, after surging nearly 6% on Thursday, which had marked its biggest single day gain since June 2010.
Thursday’s outperformers, ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation, also reverse some of the gains in the previous session.
Stock markets also under pressure after Goldman Sachs and Bank of America cut their GDP growth estimates for India.
Traders are closely watching the rupee and any news on possible diesel, LPG price hikes for further direction.
Telecom stocks rose after a government commission said it wants more spectrum to be auctioned. The commission wants at least 10 mega hertz (MHz) of airwaves to be auctioned in each telecom zone, which is higher than 5 MHz suggested by the sector regulator.
Bharti Airtel gained 0.8%. extending Thursday’s 5.6% gain after it signed a pact to buy a 49% stake in Qualcomm Inc’s fourth-generation (4G) broadband venture in the country for $165 million.
“The stake helps Bharti get a much needed footprint in the lucrative Mumbai/Delhi circles as it looks to compete against RIL,” Citi said in a note, referring to Reliance Industries .
Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications shares added 1.3 and 1.9% respectively. Investors await the outcome of another round of discussion by the commission on Saturday, which will likely discuss the auction base price.
