By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -Indian shares rose on Wednesday, tracking a global rally, as mild U.S. inflation data boosted rate cut hopes and lifted appetite for riskier assets, while easing domestic inflation and gains in Apollo Hospitals and Hindalco added support.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.54% to 24,619.35, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.38% to 80,539.91.
Twelve of the 16 major sectors ended higher, while the broader small- and mid-caps rose 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.
U.S. consumer prices rose 0.2% month-on-month in July, increasing the chances of a Federal Reserve rate cut in September to 94% from 86% a day earlier.
“Hopes of a Fed rate cut are driving risk assets globally and has brought some relief to Indian markets, which have been weighed down by tariffs and muted quarterly earnings,” said Shrikant Chouhan, executive vice president and head of equity research at Kotak Securities.
Lower U.S. rates typically depress Treasury yields and the dollar, making emerging market equities, such as India’s, more appealing to foreign investors.
Asian and European markets also gained, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index up 1.6%. [MKTS/GLOB]
Indian benchmarks were also aided on Wednesday by domestic retail inflation easing to an eight-year low in July.
All eyes are now on scheduled talks between the U.S. and Russian presidents on Friday for on a resolution to the Ukraine war. The outcome could help ease U.S. trade frictions with New Delhi after Washington doubled tariffs on Indian goods over Russian oil imports.
Chouhan noted that tariff certainty and signs of corporate earnings recovery are important for Indian equities to sustain gains.
Among stocks, Apollo Hospitals rose 7.9% and Hindalco added 5% after their earnings. Both stocks were the top two percentage gainers on the Nifty.
Beauty retailer Nykaa jumped 5.1% after a two-fold surge in profit, while Paytm gained 3.1% after its payments arm secured in-principle RBI approval to operate as an online payments aggregator.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng, Ronojoy Mazumdar, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Sonia Cheema)
