Sensex, Nifty rise for third session, financials lead

(Reuters) - Indian shares rose for a third straight session on Monday and hit their highest in nearly four weeks on the back of gains in financials, while stronger Asian stocks also boosted sentiment.

Investor now await the January-March results season, which will be kick-started by software services exporter Infosys Ltd on Friday, for cues about the economy.

“Expectation is that earnings could be a shade better this quarter,” said Gaurang Shah, head investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Meanwhile, Asian shares also crept higher as a bounce in U.S. stock futures soothed sentiment even as U.S. President Donald Trump kept up his twitter war with China just a couple of days before President Xi Jinping gives a keynote speech.

“People are looking at domestic positivity rather than global uncertainty,” Shah said.

The Nifty was up 0.47 percent at 10,380.55 as of 0524 GMT, while the benchmark Sensex was 0.42 percent higher at 33,768.93.

Both indexes gained as much as 0.5 percent to their highest since March 15.

Financials drove the gains on the NSE index. Kotak Mahindra Bank climbed as much as 1.6 percent to a record after Deutsche Bank raised its rating and price target, citing higher confidence on the lender’s growth.

However, ICICI Bank fell over 2 percent and was among the top percentage losers on the NSE index after reports that the company board is likely to meet to discuss the way ahead for Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar.

Jewellery and accessories retailer Titan Co Ltd rose as much as 3.2 percent to a record on strong quarterly jewellery sales growth.

Among other gainers, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd were trading 4 percent and 2.8 percent higher, respectively.