Sensex rises; energy, IT stocks drive gains

By Tanvi Mehta

(Reuters) - Indian shares rose in choppy trade on Tuesday, helped by gains in energy stocks, amid lingering global trade tensions as the deadline for imposition of tariffs by the U.S. on China draws closer.

Chinese stocks went into a tailspin ahead of the July 6 deadline, when the U.S. is set to slap tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods that Beijing has vowed to match with tariffs on U.S. products.

"It's a mixed market with negative bias, awaiting how trade tax and the results (corporate earnings) pan out next week," said AK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI Capital.

The earnings season in India begins next week with software services exporter Infosys Ltd scheduled to report results for the June-quarter on July 13.

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.38 percent at 10,698.10 as of 0559 GMT, after being down as much as 0.25 percent earlier in the session.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.37 percent higher at 35,393.87, having fallen 0.2 percent earlier.

The Nifty Energy index rose as much as 1.3 percent, with Oil and Natural Gas Corp the top percentage gainer. Shares of the oil marketing company had shed nearly 11 percent in June on the back of volatile crude prices.

Gains in market heavyweights Reliance Industries Ltd and IT majors Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys helped offset earlier losses.

Hero MotoCorp Ltd rose 2 percent, logging its biggest intraday percentage gain since June 12 following a 13 percent jump in total sales in June.

Banking shares edged lower after a government panel suggested creating an asset management company to resolve bad loans above 5 billion rupees ($72.77 million), among other steps to clean up the sector.

The Nifty PSU bank index fell as much as 1.25 percent with troubled lender Punjab National Bank down 1 percent, while Bank of Baroda was down 0.50 percent.

The Nifty Metal index was down as much as 1.4 percent as metal stocks continued to decline for a second consecutive session.

($1 = 68.7100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)