Indian shares recovered early losses to end higher on Monday, boosted by gains in Reliance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and technology stocks, while world markets were steady on hopes the new coronavirus variant would likely be mild.

Earlier in the day, the benchmark indexes fell more than 1% to hit three-month lows.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index .NSEI ended 0.16% higher at 17,053.95, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN rose 0.27% to 57,260.58.

Kotak Mahindra Bank KTKM.NS led gains in the Nifty, ending up 2.82%. The lender said the Reserve Bank of India had allowed state-run insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation of India to increase its stake in the bank to up to 9.99% from 4.96% as of Sept. 30.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries RELI.NS closed 1.2% higher, after rising as much as 3.6%. Its telecom business, Jio, said  on Sunday it would raise prepaid tariffs by 21%, matching price increases by rivals Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS and Vodafone Idea Ltd VODA.NS .

Separately, the Economic Times newspaper reported the conglomerate was considering an offer to buy into British telecom firm BT Group Plc BT.L , which was later denied by the company. "We categorically deny any intent" to bid for BT, Reliance said. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2SK0VZ

Among the major sub-indexes, the Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT was the only gainer, rising 0.76%, with HCL Technologies HCLT.NS gaining the most at 2.08%.

Pharma, energy and public sector banks .NIFTYENR , .NIPHARM .NIFTYPSU were among the laggards, falling between 1.07% and 2.04%.

Analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) said in a note the uncertainty around the new variant will likely mar sentiment in travel, tourism, hospitality, and retail, while pharma, IT and consumer stocks will likely make a comeback until sentiments improve.

Investors await India's economic growth data for the July-September period due at 1200 GMT on Tuesday.

 

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Vinay Dwivedi)