India stocks gain as investors look beyond border tensions, virus

Bloomberg

India stocks fluctuated as a surge in new coronavirus cases raised concerns over business recovery, while a border conflict with China’s military has raised tensions.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.1% at 33,568.89 as of 10:13 am in Mumbai, after initially falling as much as 0.4%. The NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 0.2%.
Rising Covid-19 infections in India and beyond is weighing on sentiment for riskier assets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nation will defend its sovereignty after clashes along its contested border with China led to the deaths of at least 20 soldiers.
“Border tensions and the Covid rate not flattening are the two factors we’ve to live with for sometime,” said Sanjiv Bhasin, a strategist at IIFL Securities Ltd. in Mumbai.
Rating company Fitch moved the nation’s outlook to negative, citing in a statement the weakened economic growth outlook and a high public-debt burden.
The yield on the most traded 6.45% 2029 bond was unchanged at 6.01%, while the rupee was steady at 76.1875 per US dollar.
Fifteen of 19 industry sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, led by a measure of industrial firms.
While Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the Sensex advance, increasing 0.9% while ITC Ltd. had the largest gain, rising 2.4%, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. was the biggest drag on the index, declining 1% and Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd. had the biggest drop, falling 2.3%.
A gauge of telecom companies rose 0.7%; the nation’s top court is scheduled to hear the case relating to unpaid dues of 1.4 trillion rupees ($18.4 billion) by the telecom companies, which are said to have sought staggered payment of past dues over 20 years.