Nifty, Sensex gain on improved global sentiment; IT stocks lead

By Arnab Paul

(Reuters) - Indian shares gained on Thursday, tracking broader Asian markets as positive holiday sales data in the U.S. coupled with an attempt by the White House to mend its relationship with the Federal Reserve brought some much-needed relief to investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 1,000 points for the first time on Wednesday after a Mastercard report said U.S. 2018 holiday sales rose 5.1 percent, the strongest gain in six years.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett also said Fed chairman Jerome Powell's job was not in jeopardy, in an attempt to soothe investor sentiment, which has taken beating over the last few weeks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched 0.07 percent higher.

"Markets will track global sentiment and till the general elections next year, we may not see huge movements either side," said Mugilan K, deputy manager of research at Cholamandalam Securities

"Expect Nifty to remain in 10,400-11,000 levels in the near term."

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.82 percent at 10,817.3 as of 0543 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.90 percent higher at 35,971.39.

The government is set to release 286.15 billion rupees ($4.07 billion) towards a fresh tranche of state-run bank recapitalisation before the year-end, sources told Reuters.

This is part of a plan to inject a total of 2.11 trillion rupees into state-run lenders in a bid to tackle a record bad debt problem.

Central Bank of India Ltd was the top percentage gainer among state-run lenders, rising over 6 percent. The Nifty PSU Bank index was trading 0.5 percent higher.

IT stocks jumped, with Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd gaining 2.4 and 2.5 percent, respectively.

The Nifty IT index slumped 4.8 percent over the last six sessions, hurt by a strengthening rupee.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd rose 2.2 percent.

($1 = 70.2390 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)