Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- India’s benchmark stock index rose for a third day. Software exporters gained as retail sales rebounded in the U.S., their largest export market.
Infosys Technologies Ltd., the second-largest software services provider, rose 2 percent while its larger rival Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. gained 3.7 percent. Oil & Natural Gas Corp., the largest state-owned oil explorer, fell 2.5 percent as oil declined.
“There is a sharp increase in deal pipeline,” Sandeep Muthangi, an analyst at IIFL Ltd. said in a note to clients. “Initial indications point to healthy information technology budgets for the fiscal year ending March 2011.”
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, rose 18.14, or 0.1 percent, to 17,050.65. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange gained 0.1 percent to 5,062.25. The BSE 200 Index advanced 0.1 percent to 2,117.89.
U.S. retail sales grew 1.4 percent in October after slumping the most in nine months in September, a government report yesterday showed.
Infosys gained 2 percent to 2,398.30 rupees. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the largest software services exporter, rose 3.7 percent to 690.45 rupees. Wipro Ltd., the third-biggest software services provider, rose 0.8 percent to 642.50 rupees. India’s software exporters derive at least 40 percent of their earnings from the U.S.
Amtek Gains
Oil & Natural Gas fell 2.2 percent to 1,173.10 rupees. Crude oil for December delivery fell as much 0.6 percent to $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Amtek Auto Ltd., an Indian maker of automotive parts, rose 3.3 percent to 200.10 rupees. The company said yesterday after the market closed that it had bought back and canceled $9.5 million of bonds.
Overseas funds purchased a net 6.72 billion rupees ($145 million) of Indian stocks on Nov. 13, taking their total investments in equities this year to $15 billion, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said on its Web site. The funds have bought 720 billion rupees of stocks since Jan. 1 after recording net sales of 530 billion rupees for the whole of 2008.
Source : bloomberg.com