Indian shares extend gains; Reliance hits record high

Indian shares extended gains to a second straight session on Friday with Reliance Industries climbing to a record high, while a fall in Axis Bank following its March-quarter results capped the rise in the benchmark Nifty 50 index.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.19 per cent at 17,278.60, as of 0440 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.23 per cent to 57,651.44. The indexes rose over 0.5 per cent early on Friday, before giving up some gains.

Upbeat US tech earnings on Thursday helped stocks across the globe clock gains with Indian benchmark indexes rising more than 1 per cent.

Both the indexes, however, were likely to post losses of more than 1 per cent in April.

Asian shares inched higher on Friday, although investor sentiment remained fragile amid fears about global economic growth and looming US Fed rate hikes.

"We are seeing an extension of the recovery seen in the previous session ... Ukraine war situation, pace of interest rate hikes, inflationary, high commodity prices and limited purchasing power of consumers will continue to mount pressure and keep markets rangebound and volatile," said KK Mittal, investment adviser at Venus India.

Conglomerate Reliance Industries extended gains to a fourth session, rising 1.3 per cent to scale a record high of 2,856.15 rupees. Sun Pharmaceutical rose 5 per cent to a near seven-year high and was the top percentage gainer on the Nifty 50 index, and pushed Nifty's Pharma sub-index 2 per cent higher.

Varroc Engineering soared 20 per cent to its highest since January 2020 after the auto components' maker said it would divest its 4-wheeler lighting systems operations in the Americas and Europe.

Varun Beverages jumped 8.7 per cent to a record high after its quarterly net profit rose.

Axis Bank , which reported its March-quarter results on Thursday evening, fell 5.2 per cent to a one-month low to cap the gains on the Nifty 50 index.

Wipro , which rose as much as 1.1 per cent, gave up gains to trade 1.3 per cent lower while Maruti Suzuki India was flat ahead of its March-quarter results.