Indian shares rise after financials rebound from Friday's slide

BENGALURU, May 8 (Reuters): India's key benchmarks advanced over 1 per cent on Monday, helped by a recovery in financials, strong earnings, and on improved sentiment following robust economic data from the United States.

The Nifty 50 closed 1.08 per cent higher at 18,264.40, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.16 per cent to 61,764.25. Both benchmarks posted their best single-day gains in over a month.

Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials rising 1.5 per cent. Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank also gained nearly 1.5 per cent each.

The financials index recovered from a 2.34 per cent drop on Friday, its worst day in over three months, dragged by Housing Development Finance Corporation and HDFC Bank on concerns of foreign funds outflows from their merged entity.