Banks, IT lead rebound in Indian shares on fiscal stimulus hopes

By Sethuraman N R

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares on Friday snapped their longest losing streak since February, boosted by financial and IT stocks, after a media report suggesting more domestic fiscal stimulus was on the way lifted sentiment.

The broader NSE Nifty 50 index rose 2.3% to 11,050.25 and the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 2.3% to 37,388.66, after falling for six straight sessions.

The Indian government was set to announce a stimulus package ahead of the festive season, aimed at creating jobs and pushing demand to lift the battered economy, a Moneycontrol report said.

Both Indian indexes, however, were down nearly 4% in their worst week since early-May, on worries over the impact of surging cases of the novel coronavirus on the global economic recovery.

"We may see little bounces ... Fundamentals are as weak as they were three months back," said Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Securities, Mumbai.

The Nifty IT sub-index climbed 3.5%, while the Nifty Bank index gained 2.6%.

The positive investor sentiment was also underpinned by a recovery in global shares on hopes of economic stimulus from the United States.

Shares of Granules India Ltd rose as much as 9.5% after a report said KKR, Bain Capital, Blackstone were in the race for a majority stake in the pharma company.

Shares of Vodafone Idea rose as much as 14.8%, after Reuters reported that the telecom operator's British parent, Vodafone Group Plc won an international arbitration case against Indian government.

India's Cipla rose 5.1% after it got a final approval from the U.S. FDA for a generic version of Biogen IDEC's multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)