Nifty near record high; RIL soars over 4 percent

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose for a fourth straight session on Tuesday and the broader Nifty was few points away from its record high, led by gains in Reliance Industries after CLSA said the conglomerate can report a record profit for the fourth quarter.

The 50-share index rose as much as 0.38 pct to 8,990.85, close to its record high of 8,996.60 hit on Jan. 30.

Sentiment also remained upbeat on hopes the government's move to make no distinction between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment would raise India's weight in MSCI indexes.

Traders await clarity on the central bank's stance on rate cuts after formally adopting inflation targeting and the government pushed fiscal deficit target by a year to focus on infrastructure spending.

"Goalpost would soon shift to RBI and interest rates from budget," said Deven Choksey, managing director at K R Choksey Securities, adding the monetary policy framework would bring more certainty for investors.

The Nifty was up 0.26 pct, while the benchmark Sensex gained 0.36 percent.

Gains were led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries, which rose 4.4 percent after investment bank CLSA said improvement in the company's core business has been largely ignored due to a fear of higher capex in the upcoming telecom auction.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd rose 2.6 percent after the country's largest drugmaker by sales said it has agreed to buy GlaxoSmithKline's opiates business in Australia to strengthen its pain management portfolio.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)