Sensex, Nifty rise after three days of falls; financial, IT stocks boost

By Tanvi Mehta

REUTERS - Indian shares rose on Tuesday after three consecutive sessions of falls as recent decliners such as IT stocks recovered, but overall sentiment was cautious ahead of the start of the earnings reporting season.

Earnings are shaping as critical for investors to ascertain whether the double-digit rise in the shares' value can be sustained. The broader NSE index has risen about 12.7 percent so far this year, touching a record high of 9,273.90 last week.

Meanwhile, analysts expect shares to trade in a narrow range. Infosys Ltd, the country's second-largest software services company, is due to report results on Thursday, unofficially kicking off the reporting season for major companies.

"Market will remain in this range of 9,000-9,250 points on Nifty, watching out for earnings," said Rakesh Tarway, head of research, Reliance Securities Ltd.

The Nifty was up 0.45 percent at 9,222.7 as of 0559 GMT.

The Sensex gained as much as 0.7 percent in its biggest intraday percentage gain in over a week and was last up 0.56 percent at 29,742.78.

The Nifty IT index was 0.64 percent higher, recovering from a loss of 1.4 percent in the previous session. Infosys Ltd, which had shed nearly 7 percent this month as of Monday's close, gained as much as 1.9 percent.

Financial stocks drove the gains on the NSE index, contributing about 17 index points. The Nifty Bank index had gained about 18.4 percent this year as of Monday's close.

SpiceJet Ltd rose as much as 2.9 percent after the country's capital markets regulator settled a case against chairman Ajay Singh over whether he violated disclosure rules when he bought shares from promoters in February 2015.

India's Supreme Court set aside an order by the Appellate Tribunal For Electricity allowing compensatory tariff to Tata Power Ltd and Adani Power Ltd, sending their shares down 12.5 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)