Indian shares rise on banks, techs

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian shares rose 0.58 percent on Thursday as investors bought banking and software counters, with sentiment helped by strong growth data, gains in Asian markets and an expected smooth expiry of monthly derivatives contracts.

The 30-share BSE index ended up 79.58 points at 13,696.31, with 16 stocks gaining, on a day when data showed the economy grew at a faster-than-expected annual rate of 9.2 percent in the July-September quarter.

The 50-issue Nifty was up 0.67 percent at 3,954.50 points, but in the broader market losers beat gainers 1,330 to 1,204 on a strong volume of 215.4 million shares.

"The sentiment was perfectly bullish, and I see these days that international investors are more optimistic than domestic ones," said Gajendra Nagpal, director at Unicorn Investments.

Foreign funds have bought $8.7 billion of Indian equities this year, including almost $2 billion in November alone, helping drive a rise of almost 46 percent in main index. The index hit a record high just under 13,800 points on Monday.

Private banks led the gains. Shares in ICICI Bank Ltd. rose 1.7 percent to 871.45 rupees and HDFC Bank Ltd. closed 2.9 percent higher at 1,118.40 rupees.

Shares in software exporter Infosys Technologies Ltd., which has the heaviest weighting on the index, rose 1.1 percent to 2,180.45 rupees.

Top software exporter Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. rose 2.4 percent to 1,191.85 rupees after it won a $65 million contract in Britain on Wednesday.

State-run refiners extended their losses on Wednesday's cut on retail fuel prices by the government. Indian Oil Corp. lost 4.1 percent to end at 444.30 rupees, and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. fell 3.6 percent to 281.45 rupees.

Elsewhere in the region, Colombo's All-Share index closed 2.47 percent higher at 2,777.73, after hitting a record high of 2,791.43 during trade. Karachi's 100-share Index ended up 0.23 percent at 10,619.47.

STOCKS THAT MOVED

* Shares in real estate firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd., ended at 526.30 rupees on their debut, well above their issue price of 300 rupees.

* Steel maker Raipur Alloys and Steel Ltd. jumped 20 percent, its maximum daily limit, to 122.70 rupees after Reliance Mutual Fund purchased 9.62 percent of its equity on Wednesday.

* Electrical appliances makers Sujana Universal Industries Ltd. rose 3.9 percent to 24.15 rupees after India's central bank allowed purchases by foreign portfolio investors and expatriate Indians of up to 100 percent of its paid-up capital.

TOP THREE BY VOLUME

* Parsvnath Developers Ltd. on 16 million shares.

* Torrent Power Ltd. on 8.1 million shares.

* Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd. on 6.5 million shares.