Indian shares gain on airlines boost; vaccination pace in focus
BENGALURU - Indian shares inched higher on Tuesday as airline stocks rose, while investors weighed the pace of vaccinations against the potential threat from an impending third wave of COVID-19.
By 0424 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex were up 0.19% and 0.11% at 15,865.10 and 52,938.49, respectively.
Airline stocks jumped after the country's aviation ministry https://twitter.com/MoCA_GoI/status/1412060563975282695?s=20 allowed increasing capacity on domestic flights to 65% from 50% earlier, till July-end.
Shares of IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation were up 1.8%, while SpiceJet climbed 2.8%.
State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation added 2.4% after an uptick in oil prices as OPEC+ nations called off talks on output levels on Monday.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries fell 0.6%, and was set to snap its two-day winning streak.
State-owned NMDC Ltd dropped 1.5% as the government is set to sell a 4% stake in the iron ore miner for 165 rupees/share, a 5.8% discount to its closing price on Monday.
Markets hovered near record levels in the previous trading session, with the broader NSE index closing less than 100 points away from its all-time high. The index, which posted a weekly loss of 0.87% last week, had touched a record high last month.
(Reporting by Shivani Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)