Sensex posts biggest weekly gain since end-Nov 2013

By Abhishek Vishnoi

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose for a fifth consecutive session on Friday to post its strongest weekly gain in three months after blue-chips surged, including Tata Motors which rallied to a record high, on heavy buying by foreign investors.

Foreign investors have been net buyers of cash shares in each of the previous 10 sessions, with net inflows totalling around $600 million, exchange and regulatory data show.

The strong buying has allowed the Sensex to gain 2.95 percent in February, while the Nifty ended up 3.1 percent, their biggest monthly gain since October 2013.

Still, that was less than the 4.3 percent gain this month in the MSCI Asia-Pacific index outside Japan, as investors regained their appetite for emerging markets after a wobbly January.

Traders said the week ahead would likely be marked by reaction to economic growth data for the October-December quarter, due after the markets close on Friday.

"Poor Q3 GDP numbers are already discounted by the market, in fact these numbers in my opinion will provide some hope for rate cuts, that in turn will help the sentiment," said G Chokkalingam, founder of research and fund advisory company Equinomics.

The Sensex rose 0.63 percent, or 133.13 points, to end at 21,120.12, while rising 1.8 percent to record its second consecutive weekly gain.

The Nifty rose 0.61 percent, or 38.15 points, to end at 6,276.95, also up 2 percent for the week.

Both indexes marked their strongest weekly performance since the week ended November 29, 2013.

Tata Motors Ltd rallied 3.9 percent, earlier hitting a record high at 418.20 rupees, while drug maker Lupin Ltd ended 3.7 percent higher after earlier marking its all-time high of 1,002.40 rupees.

Among other blue chip stocks, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd surged 4.3 percent while Sun Pharmaceutical Industries ended 2.6 percent higher.

United Spirits Ltd gained 1 percent, while Tech Mahindra Ltd rose 2.5 percent after announcement of their inclusion in the NSE index from March 28.

Jubilant Life Sciences gained 6.9 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green-light to its manufacturing facility at Montreal, Canada.

Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd surged 12.2 percent while its parent Jaiprakash Associates rose 3.5 percent fuelled by market expectations it could soon strike a $2-billion deal to sell two power plants to a group led by Abu Dhabi National Energy Co .

However, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd fell 4.5 percent after the carmaker sought to allay investor concerns over its plan to source cars from a plant to be built by its parent Suzuki Motor in Gujarat.

(Editing by Sunil Nair)