Indian shares edge higher as financials rise

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Indian shares closed at a three-month high on Monday as domestic regulatory approvals to manufacture Covid-19 drugs lifted pharmaceutical stocks. - Reuters
Indian shares closed at a three-month high on Monday as domestic regulatory approvals to manufacture Covid-19 drugs lifted pharmaceutical stocks. - Reuters

Dubai - The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.6 per cent at 10,370 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.52 per cent at 35,091.42.

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Published: Tue 23 Jun 2020, 8:33 AM

Last updated: Tue 23 Jun 2020, 10:46 AM

Financial stocks pulled India's main indexes higher on Tuesday as investors worried that moves to tighten US visa controls would hurt the country's big IT outsourcers.
The Nifty banking index and finance index rose nearly 1 per cent each, while a more than 1 per cent fall in shares of heavyweights Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd dragged down the information technology index by 0.5 per cent.
Trump suspended the entry into the United States of certain foreign workers on Monday, a move the White House said would help the coronavirus-battered economy.
The move could hit Indian IT outsourcing companies, which depend on H-1B visas to send engineers and developers to work with their clients in the United States, their biggest market.
Foreign institutional investors have been net buyers for the past few sessions, National Stock Exchange data showed, suggesting more global investors were pushing some of the huge surplus of cash pumped into the banking system by central banks to buy back into Mumbai.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.6per cent at 10,370 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.52per cent at 35,091.42.
Meanwhile, Asian shares see-sawed in a wild ride on Tuesday following confusing statements from the White House over the US-China trade deal, with President Donald Trump later clarifying the pact was "fully intact."
Pharma powers Indian shares to 3-month closing high 
Indian shares closed at a three-month high on Monday as domestic regulatory approvals to manufacture Covid-19 drugs lifted pharmaceutical stocks, outweighing the impact of a surge in domestic as well as global coronavirus cases over the weekend.
The NSE Nifty 50 index, which has recovered ground after taking a hit from worries about a violent border clash with China last week, ended up 0.65 per cent at 10,311, its highest since March 11. The Nifty Pharma index ended up 2.2 per cent, while the bank index rose 1.74 per cent.
Shares of Cipla Ltd ended up 3.2 per cent after India's drug regulator gave the green light for the manufacture and sale of their generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc's experimental Covid-19 treatment remdesivir.
Shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd spiked 27 per cent after the drugmaker received Indian regulatory approval on Friday to make and sell oral antiviral drug favipiravir for treating mild-to-moderate Covid-19 infections in the country.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee is currently quoting at 75.85 against the US dollar to quote at Dh20.66. The domestic currency on Monday appreciated 17 paise to close at 76.03 (provisional) against the US dollar in line with positive equity markets amid sustained foreign fund inflows. - With inputs from Reuters, business@khaleejtimes.com


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