Sensex hits fresh highs; Coal India surges on price hike

By Krishna V Kurup

(Reuters) - Indian shares hit record highs for a third straight session on Tuesday as Coal India Ltd surged after price hikes, but broader gains were capped by losses in IT and financial sectors.

Coal India rose to its highest in 10 months after the company raised prices of non-coking coal across all its units. It expects an incremental revenue of about 19.56 billion rupees ($308 million) for the rest of the current fiscal year.

But caution prevailed ahead of the corporate results season kicking in this week. Tata Consultancy Services is due to post December-quarter results on Thursday, followed by Infosys on Friday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to present the federal budget for the 2018/19 financial year on Feb. 1, amid investor concerns that the government could unveil some populist measures with heavier spending than this year.

"Markets are flattish as there is some volatility due to expectations around budget, corporate results which are starting soon and the global markets," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Broadly, the trend is still very positive, he said.

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.1 percent at 10,633.50 as of 0616 GMT, after rising as much as 0.33 percent to a record of 10,659.15.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 0.26 percent to 34,441.64, after gaining as much as 0.39 percent to 34,487.52, its highest ever.

Among the gainers, energy shares advanced the most, with Nifty energy index rising as much as 0.8 percent. Coal India shares gained 6.1 percent and Reliance Industries Ltd rose 1.3 percent.

ITC Ltd rose 1.7 percent and was among the top contributors to the index gains.

Tata Motors Ltd rose 1.7 percent. Its Jaguar Land Rover unit's sales rose 7 pct to a record 621,109 vehicles in 2017 but said it faced tough conditions in the UK due to weakening consumer confidence and a planned diesel tax rise on new cars.

Information technology stocks were down with TCS falling 0.6 percent and Wipro losing 1 percent.

Meanwhile, iron ore miner NMDC Ltd dropped 3.9 percent after the government unveiled a plan to sell up to 47.5 million shares in the company.

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)