BSE Sensex gains to near four-week high; foreign buying seen

Reuters Market Eye - The BSE Sensex gains 0.35 percent while the broader Nifty is up 0.31 percent, touching their highest intraday level since January 29.

Gains are led by what dealers say is strong institutional buying in banking and capital good shares, despite weak sentiment prevailing in the region because of a property-led downturn in Chinese shares.

Overseas investors have remained net buyers of Indian shares most of this month, despite lingering fears over China's economy and the U.S. Federal Reserve's tapering of its monthly bond buying. Foreign investors bought a net 6.03 billion rupees on Friday, provisional exchange data showed.

 

Larsen and Toubro up 2.75 percent and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd gains 2.9 percent. ICICI Bank Ltd is up 1.3 percent.

Shares in power producers Tata Power and Adani Power up after the federal power regulator said they could raise tariffs for electricity from their plants in Mundra, but NTPC plunges 11 percent as the order seen as negative to the state-run firm.

Shares in Pfizer surged 18 percent after the company decided to merge units after an internal restructuring.

(Reporting by Indulal PM)