Indian shares edged up to hover near record highs on Wednesday, with heavyweight financial companies leading gains, as risk sentiment improved on strength in global markets and declining COVID-19 cases at home.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index NIFTY was up 0.14% at 15,763.85, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN rose 0.20% to 52,377.80 by 0516 GMT.
“There is good interest today in banking stocks after we saw a correction in the earlier sessions, boosting the Nifty bank index, and that is helping the market recover,” said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.
The Nifty PSU Bank Index CNXPSUBANK , which tracks state-run banks, lost about 1.09% this week till yesterday’s session. It climbed as much as 2% in morning trade on Wednesday.
Globally, stocks held near record highs as investors bet the U.S. Federal Reserve is some way off from tapering its economic stimulus. Market focus was also on a European Central Bank policy meeting and U.S. inflation data due later this week. MKTS/GLOB
Meanwhile, daily COVID-19 cases in India stayed below the 200,000 mark for the second week, with data from the health ministry on Wednesday showing 92,596 new infections in the last 24 hours.