Sensex gains 100 points; banking stocks fall

Reuters Market Eye - The BSE Sensex and the Nifty gain around 0.5 percent. India relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules on Tuesday in a broad swathe of industries including telecoms, single-brand retail and oil and gas in a bid to lure capital inflows, prop up a sliding currency and rev up growth.

Shares in mobile operators such as Reliance Communications Ltd gain a day after India approved raising the foreign investment limit in the sector to 100 percent from 74 percent.

Reliance Communications gains 1.5 percent, while Idea Cellular Ltd rises 0.9 percent and Bharti Airtel Ltd is up 0.5 percent.

 

Lenders such as Yes Bank and other financial firms fall for a second day after the central bank raised short-term interest rates in a bid to curb the rupee's slide.

Financial companies dependent on short-term wholesale funding will be most affected by the central bank's measures to curb liquidity, analysts say.

Yes Bank falls 1.6 percent after dropping 9.9 percent on Tuesday, while IndusInd Bank is down 0.9 percent.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)