By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -Indian shares rose on Monday as banks and financials gained after strong quarterly updates, while IT stocks advanced ahead of September results.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.74% to 25,077.65 and the BSE Sensex gained 0.72% to 81,790.12.
Twelve of the 16 major sectors rose, with private banks and financials jumping 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively.
HDFC Bank, the heaviest weighted stock on the Nifty 50 index, added 0.9%, while Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped 2% after the lenders reported strong growth in loan disbursal for the September quarter.
Bajaj Finance jumped 1.9% after it said its assets under management increased by about 24% year-on-year during the July-September quarter.
The quarterly business updates from banks and financials reaffirm expectations of a gradual improvement in earnings, supporting stronger performance in benchmarks after their underperformance to other Asian, emerging market peers, said Alekh Yadav, head of investment products at Sanctum Wealth.
IT index rose 2.3%. They have added 3.2% in three sessions, rebounding from the losses seen earlier on concerns over U.S. labour market and H-1B visa fee hike.
While earnings of the companies are likely to be muted due to lack of improvement in demand, the recent price correction has created an attractive risk-reward setup for investors, with valuations turning more reasonable, said Kuber Chauhan and Abhishek Bhalotia, analysts at Axis Securities.
The broader mid-caps and small-caps rose 0.9% and 0.3%.
Among other stocks, Fortis Healthcare rose 7% and hit a record high after markets regulator gave its nod to Malaysia IHH Healthcare to buy an additional 26.1% stake each in Fortis and its unit Malar
Bucking the broader trend, retailer Trent dropped about 1% after it reported slower-than-expected revenue growth for the September quarter.
Drugmaker Lupin fell 1.8% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified its Pithampur unit-2 manufacturing facility as needing regulatory and/or administrative action.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)
