Sensex, Nifty rise; banks gain, oil marketing companies down

By Arnab Paul

(Reuters) - Indian shares rose on Monday, tracking Asian peers, after tepid U.S jobs data on Friday eased fears of faster rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. jobs report for April showed unemployment dropping to a 17-1/2 year low of 3.9 percent but wages barely improved, suggesting the Fed would keep raising rates but at a gradual pace.

Asian shares climbed with the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.21 percent.

Back home, The NIFTYPSU Bank index rose 1.6 percent with Punjab National Bank among the top gainers. The bank said on Sunday that it targets 10 percent business growth in 2018/19.

ICICI Bank, which is scheduled to report its March-quarter results later in the day, was up 1.5 percent.

However, analysts said crude oil prices and the rupee would be the other key factors affecting markets.

"Movement of crude oil and rupee are likely to move the markets today apart from corporate results," said Rahul Sharma, senior research analyst with Equity99.

"Increase in bond yield and depreciation in the rupee are key worries for the market."

The 10-year benchmark bond yield opened at 7.60 percent, sharply lower from its Friday close of 7.73 percent, though traders expect some pullback in the rally.

The Indian rupee was down against the dollar to its lowest since Feb 17, 2017

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.34 percent at 10,654.7 as of 0614 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.31 percent higher at 35,024.79.

Shares of Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd jumped about 15 percent after reports that Patanjali Ayurved had made a bid of 40 billion-45 billion rupees for the company.

Among decliners, oil marketing companies like Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Indian Oil Corp Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd fell 1.5-2.15 percent on higher global oil prices as benchmark Brent crude futures rose to their highest since November 2014.

Shares of Avenue Supermarts fell 3.4 percent after posting weaker-than-expected quarterly results on Saturday.

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)