Indian stock-index futures rose after benchmark gauges rebounded from a five-day slide yesterday.
SGX CNX Nifty Index futures for May delivery advanced 0.4 percent to 6,745 at 10:25 a.m. in Singapore. The underlying CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. added 0.1 percent to 6,699.35 yesterday. The S&P BSE Sensex (SENSEX) gained 0.2 percent to 22,445.12. The Bank of New York Mellon India ADR Index of U.S.-traded shares climbed 0.5 percent to 1,215.26.
Housing Development Finance Corp., the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, reports earnings today. The Sensex recovered from its longest stretch of declines since January amid an election that opinion polls suggest will hand power to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, ending the Congress Party’s decade-long rule.
“The overall market uptrend remains intact and we expect buying to emerge after some correction,” Rakesh Goyal, senior vice president at Bonanza Portfolio Ltd., said by e-mail. “The election results may lead to higher volatility.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress party may be headed for its worst-ever electoral performance as voters punish the government for a series of graft scandals, Asia’s fastest consumer inflation and slowing growth.
The BJP is favored by investors seeking change to revive an economy expanding at the slowest pace in a decade. Election results are due on May 16.
Housing Development Finance may report quarterly profit of 16.7 billion rupees ($ 277 million), according to a Bloomberg survey of 29 analysts.
Overseas investors bought a net $ 77.1 million of Indian shares on May 2, the ninth straight day of purchases, taking this year’s inflows to $ 5.4 billion.
The Sensex has climbed 6 percent this year and trades at 14 times projected 12-month profits, compared with the average multiple of 14.5 over the past five years. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has dropped 0.3 percent in 2014 and is valued at 10.5 times.
To contact the reporter on this story: Santanu Chakraborty in Mumbai at schakrabor11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Patterson at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net Chan Tien Hin