 "stocks, markets, funds, growth, investments")
By Rama Venkat
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares hovered near record highs on Monday, as heavyweight Reliance Industries scaled a peak and Asian markets jumped after a disappointing U.S. jobs report raised hopes of continued economic support by the Federal Reserve.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.30% at 17,375.50 by 0509 GMT and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.32% to 58,318.56. Both the indexes rose more than 3.50% in their second straight week of gains last week.
"The (Indian) equities at the moment have taken cues from how the rest of Asian market has responded to the U.S. jobs data which has not shown the strength required for taper or an interest-rate hike; that is now positive for the Indian market," said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd was the top gainer, rising as much as 3.8% to a record high. The stock is set to climb for a fourth straight session.
The company said on Friday its unit invested 3.93 billion rupees ($53.81 million) in Strand Life Sciences Pvt Ltd
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The Nifty Energy index, which rose 4.97% last week, was a top gainer among other sub-indexes, climbing 1.05%.
Among other stocks, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services added as much as 5.5%. The company said on Friday it saw a reduction in non-performing asset contracts during the last month as customer cash flows improved.
In the broader Asian markets, shares edged higher as a weak U.S. payrolls report promised to keep policy there loose for longer, but also clouded the outlook for global growth and inflation.
($1 = 73.0320 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
