By Krishna V Kurup
(Reuters) - India's benchmark BSE index touched an all-time high on Thursday, driven by gains in financial stocks such as HDFC Bank Ltd and energy shares including Reliance Industries Ltd as optimism around corporate earnings and stronger Asian shares boosted sentiment.
The broader NSE Nifty rose 0.96 percent to 11053.30 as of 0604 GMT while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.93 percent higher at 36,605. The BSE index touched 36,612.60 in early trade, a record high, while the NSE index rose 1 percent to an over 5-month high of 11,060.55.
Meanwhile, investors are awaiting May industrial growth (IIP) data and June retail inflation (CPI) data due later in the day.
Asian shares edged higher, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gaining 0.6 percent.
"Overall, market seems to be trending upwards with blue-chips faring well," said Sudhakar Pattabiraman, head of research operations at William O'Neil India.
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"This year, there are a lot of uncertainties like monsoon, crude oil prices, (U.S.-China) trade war, general elections. So, I believe volatility will continue and although it is not going to be a continuous uptrend, things are definitely looking positive for the market," he added.
The BSE index is expected to break a resistance at 36,568 points, technicals suggest. The index is up 6.5 percent this year as of last close, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan is down 6.2 percent in the same period.
Reliance Industries surged 4.7 percent and was the top gainer on the indexes, while HDFC Bank rose 1.2 percent.
Shares of oil marketing companies and airlines jumped after crude oil prices posted their biggest one-day drop in two years.
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Indian Oil Corp Ltd gained over 4 percent each. Interglobe Aviation Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd rose as much as 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Among the gainers, Dr.Reddy's Laboratories Ltd jumped as much as 3.8 percent to its highest level since June 21 after British drugmaker Indivior lowered its full-year sales forecast saying it was losing sales of its opioid addiction drug to a copycat launched last month by Dr Reddy's and U.S. firm Mylan NV.
(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)