Reliance saves the day sending India’s Sensex in the green

Indian stocks advanced as some investors viewed the benchmark equity index’s decline into correction as an opportunity to buy.

The S&P BSE Sensex Index added 0.3% to 34 474.38 in Mumbai after swinging between losses of as much as 1.2% and gains of as much as 0.8%. The gauge on Friday completed its biggest weekly plunge in more than two years. Seven of 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE advanced Monday, led by a gauge of energy companies.

Read: Worst week in two years has India stock investors taking cover 

Reliance Industries was the biggest boost to the broader gauge, climbing as much as 6.5% after last week breaching a technical indicator that some investors read as a sign that declines are overdone. Metal miner and producer Vedanta was the worst performer on the Sensex, dropping as much as 15%, the most since August 2015.

“A confluence of factors is weighing on the market,” said Viraj Mehta, a fund manager at Mumbai-based Equirus Capital. “These have reduced the premium over the long-term average at which companies were trading.”

As equities fell on Friday, volatility rose after the central bank chose to keep its interest rates unchanged, triggering a weakening in the local currency, Asia’s worst performer this year. A climb in the price of oil — India’s top import — has fuelled the rupee’s depreciation and sparked concern economic and company earnings growth may be hurt. The India NSE Volatility Index climbed to its its highest close since February 2016.