Indian Shares Rebound As Oil Prices Stabilize

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rebounded on Friday after witnessing one of their sharpest intraday declines in recent sessions the previous day amid broad-based selling across sectors.

Buying emerged at lower levels as oil prices steadied in response to the efforts by the U.S. and Israel to ease concerns about ongoing fuel supply issues.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had requested that there be no further attacks on the Iranian gas field.

Trump suggested that he has no plans to deploy American troops to the Middle East. To increase oil supply and bring down energy prices, U.S. officials said Washington may soon lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded in tankers.

Seven U.S. allies have offered support for a potential coalition to reopen the strait of Hormuz for commercial ships and oil tankers.

The initial rally, however, faltered soon and key benchmark indexes ended off their day's highs after media reports suggested that drones have struck Kuwait's largest oil refinery for the second day, leading to a fire and forced shut down at several units of the oil facility.

State oil firm KPC said its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks, causing massive fire in some units. The facility processes about 730,000 barrels of oil per day.

The United Arab Emirates also reported a "missile threat" early in the morning as Muslims began celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The benchmark BSE Sensex hit a high of 75,286.39 before paring gains to end up 325.72 points, or 0.44 percent, at 74,532.96.

The broader NSE Nifty index closed 112.35 points, or 0.49 percent, higher at 23,114.50, after having hit a high of 23,345.15 earlier.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rose by 0.7 percent and half a percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,455 shares rising while 1,811 shares declined and 166 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top gainers, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Titan Company, Reliance Industries, Trent, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Tata Steel rallied 2-3 percent.