Sensex heads for best weekly gain since March; BPCL soars

REUTERS - Indian shares rose more than 1 percent on Friday, heading for their fourth session of gains and best weekly jump in nearly three months, after companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd posted upbeat earnings.

Improving earnings have raised optimism for a broader-based economic recovery, especially at a time when investors are betting monsoon rains will be stronger than average this year.

Mirroring the optimism, foreign investors have bought Indian shares worth a net $119.73 million so far this month, taking this year's inflows to $1.92 billion.

"Earnings have improved overall and this quarter's results have surprised markets positively," said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice-president & head of research at Angel Broking.

"India's macros and consumer-driven sectors are doing quite well and there is a clear-cut optimism that growth will pick up."

The broader NSE Nifty was 0.87 percent higher at 8,140.15 as of 0814 GMT, after rising as much as 1.2 percent earlier in the session, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was up 0.91 percent at 26,607.18.

Both the indexes were on track for their biggest weekly gain since March 4.

Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corp jumped as much as 10.5 percent to a record high after the company reported upbeat March-quarter results.

Jet Airways rose 2 percent after the country's second-biggest airline by passengers on Thursday reported an annual profit for the first time since 2007 and a year ahead of schedule under its 2014 turnaround plan.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained 5.5 percent after U.S. subsidiary Taro Pharmaceutical Industries posted strong full-year results.

However, State Bank of India pared most of its intraday gains and was up 0.5 percent, after the nation's top lender by assets reported a worse-than-expected 66 percent fall in quarterly profit, due to sharply higher provisions for bad loans.

Oil and Natural Gas fell 1.7 percent after weak March-quarter oil production and core earnings.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)