A bird flies near the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, April 3, 2025. REUTER
Dec 19 (Reuters) – Indian shares rose on Friday, tracking their Asian peers, after soft U.S. inflation data raised expectations for further Federal Reserve easing next year.
The Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex added 0.6% to 25,959.2 and 84,978.05, respectively, as of 9:59 a.m. IST.
All 16 major sectors traded higher. The broader mid-caps and small-caps each gained 0.5% and 0.7%.
Asian markets rose 0.6% after the U.S. inflation data, while the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to levels unseen in three decades, as widely expected.
U.S. consumer prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in November, below a forecast of a 3.1% increase.
A lower U.S. policy rate could spur stronger foreign inflows into India, bolster the rupee and improve liquidity, said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president (research) at Mehta Equities.
Investor sentiment was also lifted by foreign portfolio investors turning buyers in India after an aggressive sell-off earlier this month. FPIs purchased equities worth 5.96 billion rupees ($65.93 million) on Thursday, marking their second straight session of buying, according to provisional data.
Among top sectoral gainers, pharma stocks advanced 1.3% as the United States defense bill, which includes the U.S. Biosecure Act, is expected to propel global innovator pharma companies to continue diversifying their supply chains away from China.
Citi analysts said the move could potentially benefit Indian contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs).
Heavyweight financials and information technology stocks rose 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively.
Among individual stocks, ICICI Prudential Asset Management (IICL.NS),listed at a 20.1% premium to its issue price after a $1.2 billion initial public offering earlier this week.
GPT Infraprojects jumped 6% after its joint venture secured a contract worth 18.04 billion rupees.
Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Sonia Cheema
