Stock indexes gained Thursday after a flattish start earlier, following data that showed India’s trade deficit for March was smaller though they declined on an annual basis.
Further falling prices of oil and gold, both of which India is a major importer, led to hopes it would help the country’s ballooning fiscal deficit.
At close, the S&P BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty added 1.5% and 1.7%, respectively. All sector indexes ended in the green except for IT.
In front-line gainers, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors and Axis Bank were up over 3%.
Financial stocks were generally sharply higher in trade: with IDFC and Bank of India climbing over 4%. IndusInd Bank jumped 7.2% after posting robust earnings.
In global indices, Asian markets traded with a mixed trend while gold and crude oil continued to remain soft.
