Sensex heads for sixth straight gain, banks rally

(Reuters) - India's stock markets headed for a sixth consecutive session of gains on Thursday as lenders rallied on a media report the central bank has trimmed the list of companies whose loans need to be provided for against the risk of default.

The move is likely to result in better-than-expected March-quarter results at banks, especially those with high exposure to heavily indebted companies, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

Risk appetite also improved as oil prices rallied due to a smaller-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories and abiding hopes that producers may eventually agree ways to ease a global glut, lifting Asian stocks.

The NSE Nifty is on the verge of turning positive for the year, after falling as much as 14.1 percent in 2016 at one point in February, on the back of hopes the central bank would continue to ease interest rates in the wake of falling inflation and hopes for good monsoon rains.

But analysts also warned shares could see a slowdown in the pace of gains, with companies in the midst of reporting results and the country's parliament due to reconvene on April 25 for the second half of the budget session.

"Positive global factors and monsoon forecast have provided support to the market so far, but now we could see some consolidation before another up move", said Dipen Shah, senior vice-president at Kotak Securities.

The broader Nifty was up 0.26 percent at 7,935.41 as of 0809 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.4 percent higher at 25,948.45.

Banking stocks were among the leading gainers, with State Bank of India and ICICI Bank jumping 4 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

Financial services firm Equitas Holdings surged 25 percent above the IPO price of 110 rupees on debut. The company attracted demand for more than 17 times the number of shares on sale in its IPO of up to $327 million.

But Wipro tanked 6.5 percent after the IT services firm posted a fall of 1.6 percent in January-March net profit at 22.35 billion rupees, missing analysts' estimates.

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