Indian shares extend gains as telecom stocks rally

Indian shares gained on Tuesday, led by telecom stocks after Reliance Industries' unit Jio raised data tariffs last week, signalling more pricing discipline in the sector.

sensex
A man looks at a screen across a road displaying the Sensex on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India. REUTERS

Indian shares gained on Tuesday, led by telecom stocks after Reliance Industries' unit Jio raised data tariffs last week, signalling more pricing discipline in the sector.

At 0610 GMT, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.25 percent at 32,587 while the broader NSE Nifty rose 0.27 percent to 10,212.

Among the top Sensex gainers: NTPC rose 2.8 percent, ONGC added 2.7 percent, Tata Steel gained 1.8 percent while Maruti Suzuki advanced 1.2 percent.

The S&P BSE Telecom Index jumped 0.9 percent, led by Tata Teleservices up 5 percent, Onmobile gaining 3.5 percent, Idea Cellular rising 1.2 percent while MTNL added 0.7 percent.

Ramco Systems shares jumped 12 percent after the company said it has won a multi-million dollar payroll transformation order from a British multinational banking and financial services company.

Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 2 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.

Globally, Asian shares hovered near decade highs.

Investors are closely watching China and the 19th Communist Party Congress, which winds up on Tuesday and at which President Xi Jinping is expected to release the composition of the Standing Committee - the apex of power in the country.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.1 percent firmer at 549.71 points, not far from a 10-year high of 554.63 set last week.

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