Expectation of an increase in revenues on the back of a weak rupee boosts prices of IT stocks.
India's stocks rose, driving the benchmark index to its biggest gain in three weeks, as the weaker rupee drove software exporters higher. Infosys Technologies advanced 3.2 percent. A weaker local currency boosts the value of sales abroad.
Satyam Computer Services jumped 20 percent after receiving approval to sell as much as a 51 percent stake in the company. Oil & Natural Gas Corp., the nation's biggest oil producer, rose after crude prices climbed.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensitive Index, or Sensex, climbed 127.90, or 1.6 percent, to 8,325.82 at the close of trade. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange added 1.7 percent to 2,620.15. The BSE 200 Index rose 1 percent to 981.69. S&P CNX Nifty futures for March delivery gained 2.2 percent to 2,612.
The Indian currency fell 1 percent this week to 51.67 a dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It touched a record-low 52.185 on March 3.
Infosys, the No. 2 software exporter, gained 3.2 percent to Rs 1,219.35. Wipro, ranked third, climbed 3.2 percent to Rs 213.3. India's software exporters derive more than half their revenue from the US.
Satyam Computer jumped 20 percent to Rs 42.15. The company at the centre of India's biggest corporate fraud inquiry has received regulatory approval to sell as much as a 51 percent stake in the company, the Indian software provider said.
Patni Computer Systems rose 11 percent to Rs 110.1 after the software developer's stock rating was raised to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Oil & Natural Gas gained 3.6 percent to Rs 673.35. Crude oil for April delivery gained as much as 2 percent to $44.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas investors sold a net Rs 609 crore ($118 million) of Indian stocks on March 5, according to the nation's market regulator.
The following shares were among the most active on the exchange.
Ranbaxy Laboratories slipped 1.9 percent to Rs 141.30, extending yesterday's 9.4 percent slump. The nation's largest drugmaker is being investigated by Australia's top medicine regulator after one of the company's plants was banned by U.S. authorities for “falsified test results,” said the Sydney Morning Herald. Ranbaxy declined to comment on the newspaper report.
Tata Motors slid 0.5 percent to Rs 138.65. The maker of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles' corporate family rating was lowered two steps to B3 from B1, six levels below investment grade, by Moody's Investors Service on a decline in sales and the need to refinance a $2 billion bidge loan amid a global credit crunch.
The author is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own
