Indian shares extend gains for third straight week ahead of CPI data

Indian shares reversed intraday losses and extended their winning streak for a third week in a row on Friday, aided by financials and auto stocks, ahead of domestic retail inflation data.

The Nifty 50 NIFTY closed 0.10% higher at 18,314.80, while the S&P BSE Sensex SENSEX rose 0.20% to 62,027.90. Both benchmarks logged weekly gains of more than 1%.

Seven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with the high weightage financials CNXFINANCE rising over 0.5%.

Auto CNXAUTO climbed 0.77% on a nearly 6% rise in Eicher Motors Ltd EICHERMOT after its fourth-quarter profit beat estimates.

The metal index CCNXMETAL lost over 1.8%, after data on U.S. jobless claims and producer prices signalled a potential slowdown in the world's largest economy. Weak macro data from China, the world's largest producer and consumer of metals, also added to the concerns.

Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, advised investors to "utilise a buy-on-decline strategy in the broader markets."

"With frontline indexes taking a breather, midcap and smallcap stocks are witnessing active participation," reiterated Vaishali Parekh, vice president - technical research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

The midcap CNXMIDCAP and smallcap CNXSMALLCAP indexes have gained for seven consecutive weeks in a row. Analysts expect the benchmark to remain rangebound over the next few weeks after the recent rise.

Investors await domestic retail inflation data for April, scheduled to be released at 5:30 p.m. IST. India's consumer inflation likely cooled to an 18-month low of 4.80% in April, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

Among individual stocks, Max Healthcare Institute Ltd MAXHEALTH surged over 3% after index provider Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) added the stock to its India Standard Index following a quarterly rejig.

Meanwhile, Adani Total Gas Ltd ATGL, Adani Transmission Ltd ADANIENSOL and Indus Towers Ltd INDUSTOWER lost between 2% and 5% after being removed from the index.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)