Indian shares open higher on IT boost, soft inflation data
India's equity benchmarks inched higher on Tuesday, supported by IT stocks following upbeat quarterly results from HCLTech HCLTECH, while softer retail inflation has raised hopes of a potential rate cut by the central bank in December.
The Nifty 50 NIFTY rose 0.2% to 25,277.55, while the BSE Sensex
SENSEX nudged 0.09% higher to 82,404.54, as of 9:15 a.m. IST.
Fifteen of the 16 major sectors logged gains, with the Nifty IT index CNXIT rising 0.6%. Shares of HCLTech
HCLTECH gained 1.4% after the country's third-largest software services exporter maintained its annual revenue growth forecast of 3%-5% and beat second-quarter revenue estimates.
The broader small-caps CNXSMALLCAP and mid-caps
CNXMIDCAP rose 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.
Meanwhile, domestic retail inflation slid to an eight-year low of 1.54% in September, government data showed on Monday, as food prices eased. The sharp decline strengthened the case for a potential rate cut at the Reserve Bank of India's policy meeting in December.
($1 = 88.6740 Indian rupees)