New Delhi, India (BBN)-Most Indian stocks climbed and the rupee increased to a nine-month high before monthly inflation data Wednesday and the results of elections due Thursday.
Tata Steel Ltd (TATA) rose to a one-year high after reporting profit that beat estimates, reports Bloomberg.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (SUNP) gained the most in two weeks after Novartis AG settled a suit with US unit of India’s top drugmaker by market value.
The rupee strengthened 0.2 percent to 59.5350 against the dollar.
Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX), which added 0.1 percent to 23,838.85 at 10:19am in Mumbai.
The Sensex has beaten stock indexes in Brazil, Russia and China in 2014 as investors bet a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government will revive an economy growing at near a decade-low pace.
Foreigners have bought a net $5.97 billion of domestic shares this year, highest in Asia after Taiwan, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“Markets have already factored in a victory” by the BJP and its allies, Tirthankar Patnaik, a strategist at Religare Capital Markets Ltd, said in an interview to Bloomberg TV India today.
“Any surprise tomorrow, like the last time when exit polls underestimated the victory margin, and we are in for another jump.”
The National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP, is set to win 279 of the 543 parliamentary seats, according to an exit poll released yesterday by NDTV television channel and Hansa Research.
Six surveys on May 12 showed the alliance winning 249 to 340 seats, with 272 needed for majority.
The Sensex index has risen 21 percent since September 13, when the BJP named Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, while the rupee has strengthened 6.5 percent.
The stocks gauge is valued at 14.8 times projected 12-month profits. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is trading at 10.7 times.
Foreigners bought a net $203 million of Indian shares on May 12, a 15th straight of purchases. Inflows into equities may continue on expectations of a stable government, Goldman Sachs Group Inc said in a report on May 13.
Wholesale inflation accelerated 5.7 percent in April, the same pace as in March, according to the average estimate of 39 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
BBN/ANS/AD-15May14-3:55pm (BST)
