Sensex heads for fourth straight gain on Infosys boost

REUTERS - Indian shares headed for a fourth consecutive session of gains on Monday as investors cheered software services firm Infosys' upbeat revenue forecast and its third successive estimate-beating earnings on new client wins.

Infosys, seen as a bellwether for the Indian IT industry, rose to a life-time high on Monday after the company said it expects revenue to grow between 11.5 percent and 13.5 percent in constant currency terms in the current year - indicating a faster growth rate than the industry average.

Investor sentiment has improved in the past few days after data showed easing inflation and a government forecast for an above-average monsoon rains sparked hopes for the economy and for more rate cuts by the central bank.

Mirroring the optimism, foreign investors bought a net $541.85 million worth of Indian shares so far this month, taking this year's inflow to $1.08 billion.

The nifty <.NSEI> was up 0.34 percent at 7,877.14 as of 0658 GMT, after rising nearly 4 percent over the past three sessions.

The Sensex <.BSESN> was 0.4 percent higher at 25,730.10.

Indian stock markets will remain closed on Tuesday for a public holiday.

"Infosys came out with better-than-expected results and that's why we are seeing some cheer in the market but this has to be followed up by TCS (Tata Consultancy Services)," said U.R. Bhat, managing director at Dalton Capital Advisors.

"If TCS doesn't come up with a better result, it would be a good excuse for the market to short."

Software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services will report its March-quarter earnings after market hours on Monday. The stock, however, fell 2 percent after medical software company Epic Systems won a $940 million U.S. jury verdict against TCS in a trade secret case.

Drugmaker Alkem Laboratories fell 5 percent after Germany's health regulator on Friday accused Alkem of fudging trial data.

ITC rose 1 percent after India's biggest cigarette maker said it would resume production at its factories, two weeks after it decided to shutter its plants over the government's stringent new packaging rules.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)