BSE Sensex ends flat; L&T shares surge 6.1 percent

By Abhishek Vishnoi

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex rose on Monday to its highest in nearly three years as Larsen & Toubro surged after the company maintained its revenue guidance for this fiscal year, while sentiment was also boosted as foreign investors remained net buyers for an eleventh consecutive session.

Foreign institutional investors bought Indian shares worth 17.24 billion rupees on Friday, marking their biggest single-day buying in over a month, and bringing the total to 92.82 billion Indian rupees in eleven sessions, regulatory data show.

Gains also tracked global shares that rose to five-year highs as investors looked ahead to a deluge of U.S. data for clues on when the Federal Reserve will begin scaling back its stimulus.

 

Traders say so far foreign flows and better-than-expected quarterly earnings have offset concerns that the Reserve Bank of India might raise interest rates in its next monetary policy review on October 29.

"Surprisingly FII money is coming despite industry deceleration. There are a lot of questions and concerns on macro but so far the answer has been only liquidity," said G. Chokkalingam, managing director and chief investment officer at Centrum Wealth Management.

RBI cutting short term liquidity rates has been a silver lining as well, added Chokkalingam.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 0.05 percent, or 11 points, to end at 20,893.89, its highest close since November 2010.

The broader Nifty rose 0.25 percent, or 15.60 points, to end at 6,204.95, closing above the psychologically important 6,200 level.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd shares surged 6.1 percent after it maintained its revenue growth forecast of 15 percent for the current fiscal year to March, after reporting on Friday a 7 percent annual rise in recurring net profit for the three months to September 30

Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd rose 0.2 percent, after earlier falling as much as 1.9 percent after it said its September-quarter net profit rose by 10 percent to 12.66 billion rupees.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd rose 5.4 percent after it said its September-quarter consolidated net profit rose by 25.5 percent to 2.36 billion rupees, beating some analysts estimates.

Asian Paints Ltd rose 5.9 percent after its September-quarter consolidated net profit rose by 36.8 percent to 3.27 billion rupees, beating analysts' estimates.

Hindalco Industries Ltd gained 3.1 percent after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office said he was satisfied with the outcome of the process of allocating coal blocks to certain companies, dealers said.

Last week Hindalco said it was being investigated in a coal block allocation case, adding it had followed every process required in the coal block allocation procedure.

Among stocks that fell, technology shares declined on profit-taking after touching record highs last week. HCL Technologies Ltd lost 1.7 percent while Tata Consultancy Services Ltd fell 2.3 percent.

Shares in UltraTech Cement Ltd ended 0.3 percent lower, having earlier slumped as much as 4.7 percent after the country's largest cement maker posted a 52 percent fall in net profit for the July-September quarter.

(Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)