Indian shares were largely unchanged on Wednesday as gains in the banks and IT sectors helped overshadow concerns in global markets following blast in Poland that local authorities said were caused by Russian-made missiles.
The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) rose 0.03% to 18,409.05 as of 0507 GMT. The S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN), which closed at a record high in the previous session, gained 0.08% to 61,923.28.
That comes in contrast to the 1.1% drop in MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) caused by the potential for a further ratcheting up of geopolitical tensions.
"India is in a much better spot both in terms of the fiscal health of the Government of India and the recent growth prospects of the economy," Gaurav Dua, head of capital market strategy at Sharekhan, said.
Although, "there are signs of little weakness due to incident in Poland and news of possible tinkering in capital gains tax in the (India) budget," Dua added. NATO member Poland said a Russian-made rocket killed two people in eastern Poland near Ukraine. Moscow denied it was responsible and U.S. President Joe Biden said early information suggested the blast may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia.
Separately, India would exceed budget estimates for direct tax collection by 25%-30% in fiscal 2023, an income tax official from India's finance ministry said.
Among the biggest gainers were Nifty's banks (.NSEBANK) and IT (.NIFTYIT) indexes, which gained at least 0.3% each, and made up for declines in the fast-moving consumer goods (.NIFTYFMCG) and metal (.NIFTYMET) sectors.
RBL Bank (RATB.NS) rose nearly 2% as CEO R. Subramaniakumar told Reuters it is looking to ramp up its retail exposure to protect its books from being over-exposed to large corporates.
