Quarterly Earnings Drive Stocks To New Highs

Indian shares rose for the fifth straight day on Wednesday, aided by a late-session resurgence in Reliance and an uptick in banking and media stocks on strong quarterly earnings.

The Nifty 50 index closed 0.42 per cent at 19,833.15, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.45 per cent to 67,097.44, closing above the 67,000 mark for the first time

The midcaps and smallcaps indexes rose 0.68 per cent and 0.78 per cent, respectively, after declines in the previous session.

"Expect the gradual up move in the market to continue given the positive macroeconomic factors and healthy earnings so far," said Siddhartha Khemka, head - retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

"Investors should utilise the 'buy-on-dips' strategy at record high levels."

Reliance Industries, among the highly weighted stocks on the Nifty, rose 1.2 per cent to a 52-week high, gaining for the third session in a row ahead of the demerger of its financial services unit on Thursday and earnings on Friday.

Bank of Maharashtra climbed 5.40 per cent after reporting strong quarterly results and helped lift public sector banks nearly 2 per cent.

IndusInd Bank rose over 2 per cent after its quarterly profit beat market estimates, helped by loan growth and a drop in provisions.

TV18 Broadcast jumped over 9 per cent after reporting a rise in June-quarter profit and powered an over 1 per cent gain in the media index.

Among other stocks, NTPC rose nearly 3 per cent, topping the Nifty 50, after Goldman Sachs made it its top pick in the power sector.

IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States, ended flat after a four-session rally on firming expectations that the Federal Reserve was nearing the end of its monetary policy tightening cycle.