Sensex at 1-week closing high; inflows, U.S. jobs data on watch

By Abhishek Vishnoi

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSR Sensex rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday to close at its highest in a week, as Tata Steel shares surged after rival ArcelorMittal SA's operating profit beat estimates, while foreign investors turning net buyers after a five-day selling streak also helped.

Foreigners bought 107.5 million rupees worth of Indian shares on Thursday to snap their five-day selling streak totalling $542 million in secondary markets, provisional exchange and regulatory data shows.

Analysts say that with the Nifty taking support at its 200 day moving average, any follow-up buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) will help reverse the short-term trend which had turned down.

Gains also tracked higher global shares that further recovered from a steep two-week selloff, buoyed by expectations that a January U.S. jobs report due later on Friday will soothe recent concerns about the pace of global growth.

"The recent bout of FII selling is more related to global factors of tapering and China slowdown, not due to India issues," said Premal Madhavji, head of equities at Espirito Santo Securities.

The most likely outflows are those of short-term ETF money, not long-only selling, Madhavji added.

Both indexes marked their highest close since January 31, but it was also a second consecutive weekly decline amid emerging-market risk aversion.

The Sensex rose 0.32 percent, or 65.82 points, to end at 20,376.56. It ended 0.7 percent lower for the week.

The broader NSE index <.NSEI> rose 0.45 percent, or 26.90 points, to end at 6,063.20. It marked a weekly fall of 0.4 percent.

Consumer inflation data for January due on Wednesday and wholesale inflation data on Friday will be the next key domestic triggers.

Tata Steel Ltd jumped 6.4 percent after traders took positive cues from ArcelorMittal SA December-quarter results. ArcelorMittal reported an operating profit of $1.9 billion, higher than a Reuters poll consensus of $1.801 billion.

Among other blue chips, Larsen and Toubro rose 0.9 percent, while Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd rose 2.9 percent.

Tata Motors Ltd rose 0.7 percent on optimism ahead of its December earnings on Monday.

Aurobindo Pharma ended 2.8 percent higher. It earlier rose to an all-time high of 539.85 rupees after posting a four-fold increase in profit to 4.17 billion rupees for the December quarter, beating some analysts estimates.

Reliance Infrastructure rose 2.1 percent after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered state-run power producer NTPC Ltd to continue supplying power to distribution companies in the capital, New Delhi, until March 26, a move that averts a blackout next week.

Hexaware Technologies rose 4.9 percent after the company's quarterly net profit rose by 56 percent to 1.03 billion rupees, beating expectations.

Among stocks that fell, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd fell 0.9 percent on short positions in the futures market, dealers said.

The high costs charged for lending and borrowing on BHEL indicate shorts are building up, say analysts.

(Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)