Indian shares surge over 1% as financials gain, lockdowns ease

Indian shares rose on Monday, lifted by gains in financial and information technology stocks, while sentiment was further boosted as Asia's third largest economy emerged from the coronavirus lockdowns amid hopes of recovery in global economy.

The NSE Nifty 50 bluechip index rose 1.5% to 10,297 by 0445 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was up 1.42% at 34,773.67. Both the indexes have gained over 11% in the past two weeks.

"Opening up of the economy and the way Indian corporates are raising money have boosted the markets. Investors were earlier frightened about the impact of the lockdown on the economy. Now, things are not as bad as they looked," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of research at SMC Global Securities in New Delhi.

Reliance Industries rose as much as 2.32% to hit a fresh record high after it said on Sunday that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will buy 1.16% of its digital unit Jio Platforms for 56.83 billion rupees ($752 million).

"Bottoms have been made and this is a buy on dip kind of a rally. Investors on sidelines will be induced to jump into the markets," he added.

India is relaxing its months-long lockdown with the reopening of malls, restaurants and places of worship starting Monday despite a huge spike in coronavirus cases.

The Nifty banking index and the financial index gained 2.69 and 2.03%, respectively.

Shares of private-sector lender IndusInd Bank rose as much as 8% to 456 rupees, after the bank said promoters IndusInd International Holdings Ltd and IndusInd Ltd planned to raise their stake through share purchases from the open market.

Meanwhile, global share prices edged higher on Monday after a surprise recovery in U.S. employment provided cause for optimism that global economies could quickly revive.