Sensex rises; exporters lead

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex and Nifty rose on Wednesday, led by gains in export-focussed companies after the rupee fell to a near two-year low in early trades, while bullish brokerage calls also helped drugmakers such as Sun Pharmaceutical Industries .

The dollar has surged by almost 20 percent against a basket of major currencies in the past year as expectations have grown that the U.S. Fed would become the first major central bank to hike rates since the financial crisis.

Gains in export-focussed companies and value buying in some other blue chips offset losses in financial stocks.

Upbeat economic data from the United States and a weak rupee are helping IT stocks, said Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas.

The Sensex was up 0.49 percent and the Nifty was higher 0.44 percent, after two days of losses.

Shares of export-focussed companies led the gains. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose 4.5 percent after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral", citing the company's integration with Ranbaxy Laboratories , price hikes at unit Taro and improvement in U.S. supplies as key reasons.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals shares jumped as much as 5.9 percent after the company received final approval from the U.S. FDA for a copy of Bayer's Yaz contraceptive drug.

Among IT stocks, Infosys rose 1.6 percent, HCL Tech gained 2.6 percent and Wipro increased 2.5 percent.

Shares of Delhi-based developers rose after reports that the country's environment ministry spelt out the dimensions of the eco-sensitive zone around Noida's Okhla bird sanctuary by limiting it to 1 KM. The move is expected to unfreeze projects that have been in limbo for two years.

Jaiprakash Associates surged 7.8 percent, Jaypee Infratech gained 5.4 percent, Unitech rose about 1 percent, and DLF advanced 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel fell 0.7 percent after a report that Reliance Industries would roll out its Jio 4G-enabled handsets next month.

(Reporting by Karen Rebelo; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)