Indian share markets ended higher on Monday, breaking a five-day losing streak, after hopes rose that trade talks between India and the US could move forward.
Markets were weak in the morning and fell as much as 0.8 percent during the day, extending last week’s sharp fall. Sentiment improved later after the new US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, said that officials from both countries would discuss trade issues in a phone call on Tuesday.
The Nifty 50 closed 0.42 percent higher at 25,790.25, while the Sensex gained 0.36 percent to finish at 83,878.17. Last week, both indices had fallen around 2.5 percent, their worst weekly drop in more than three months.
The comments from the US side come after a week of mixed messages from India and the US on why a trade deal failed to move ahead last year. The US currently charges tariffs of up to 50 percent on some Indian goods, and President Donald Trump has warned that these could be increased further.
“It is still too early to say if this recovery will last. The fall last week was unexpected, especially since companies have been reporting fairly good business updates,” an analyst said.
On Monday, most sectors ended the day in the green, with financial stocks leading the recovery. Smaller stocks, however, continued to struggle, with small cap shares falling 0.5 percent and mid cap stocks slipping 0.1 percent.
Shares of Reliance Industries rose 0.5 percent after recovering from early losses. The stock had dropped sharply last week after the company said it does not expect oil shipments from Russia this month.
