Indian shares open flat as pharma boost offsets losses in tech stocks

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares were largely unchanged on Monday, as gains in pharmaceutical stocks and heavyweight Reliance Industries were offset by losses in information technology stocks.

By 0414 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.04% at 15,866.95 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.02% to 52,936.01.

Both the indexes added more than 1% last week, when the country's vaccinations averaged six million doses per day and some pandemic-induced restrictions were eased further.

On Monday, India reported its lowest increase in COVID-19 deaths since mid-April.

In Mumbai trading, the Nifty Pharma index rose 0.77%, while conglomerate Reliance Industries gained 0.4% after four sessions of losses.

The Nifty IT index fell 0.43% after two straight sessions of gains.

Among global markets, broader Asian shares kicked off the week on a cautious note as a spike in coronavirus cases across the weekend hurt investor sentiment.

 

(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)