Indian shares advance; HUL rises to record

In Asia, investor sentiment has also been supported by a raft of upbeat economic news out of China.

india trader
Traders works at a brokerage in Mumbai, India. Reuters

Indian shares gained on Wednesday, led by consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever after better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

At 0630 GMT, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.53 percent to 31,878 while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 0.50 percent to 9,876.

In Asia, investor sentiment has also been supported by a raft of upbeat economic news out of China. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 percent at its highest since April 2015.

Hindustan Unilever shares rose as much as 3.2 percent to a record high after it reported a 9 percent increase in June quarter net profit, beating expectations.

Other gainers included Bharti Airtel, ITC, Power Grod and NTPC, up between 1.3 percent to 2.6 percent.

Among the laggards, KPIT Technologies fell 1.1 percent ahead of its June quarter earnings.

Reliance Capital declined 1.8 percent after a block deal.

Market breadth was in the favour of losers, with about 2 stocks declining to every 1 stock that advanced.

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