By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -Indian shares ended flat on Thursday ahead of U.S.–Russia talks on Ukraine but logged weekly gains as IT and pharma stocks rose after a U.S.–China tariff truce extension and rising hopes of a Fed rate cut.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.05% to 24,631.3 points, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.07% to 80,597.66. The benchmarks added about 1% for the week, snapping six straight weeks of losses-their longest since April 2020.
Indian markets will be closed on Friday for Independence Day.
Fourteen of the 16 major sectors advanced this week. The broader small-caps and mid-caps gained 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.
Pharma and IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., rose 3.5% and 1.3% on optimism from the extension of the U.S.–China tariff truce and softer U.S. inflation.
Investors, however, remained cautious ahead of the high-stakes Russia–U.S. presidential summit on August 15 in Alaska, which could impact India-U.S. trade ties.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that sanctions or secondary tariffs, including on Indian goods, could increase if talks falter.
The U.S. has slapped an additional 25% tariff on Indian imports over its Russian oil purchases, taking total duties to 50%.
“Domestic macro strength and steady flows offer support, but U.S.-India trade uncertainties could squeeze export-sector margins, dent quarterly earnings, and spur volatility and stock-level divergence,” said Saurav Ghosh, co-founder of online investment platform provider Jiraaf.
However, any breakthrough in the Russia–U.S. summit could be a game-changer, potentially leading to scrapping of secondary tariffs on Indian goods, two analysts said.
Among key movers, Apollo Hospitals jumped 10.4% this week, its best in nearly four years, after strong quarterly results.
On the day, Infosys gained 1.5% following a joint venture with Australian telecom major Telstra.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Janane Venkatraman and Harikrishnan Nair)
