Sensex heads towards highest close in nearly two weeks

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex and Nifty rose nearly 1 percent on Wednesday, heading for their highest close in nearly two weeks, led by gains in software exporters, as investors seeking bargains bought into beaten down stocks.

Information technology stocks like Infosys , Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro led the rally on a strong U.S. dollar on rising expectations of an interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Sentiment was also boosted after a private survey showed India's dominant services industry bounced back to growth in July.

The Sensex was up 0.83 percent and the Nifty rose 0.76 percent heading towards their highest close since July 23.

 

"After yesterday's credit policy the view was that we could go down and recover. My sense is that we're seeing some buying at lower levels," Gaurang Shah, vice president at Geojit BNP Paribas, said.

Indian stocks ended a four-session winning streak on Tuesday after the central bank left key rates unchanged.

Financial stocks that saw some selling pressure on Tuesday recovered with Housing Development Finance Corp gaining 0.7 percent and HDFC Bank rising 0.5 percent.

Adani Enterprises Ltd's shares jumped over 9 percent after the company said on Tuesday it was in talks with Taiwan's Foxconn for a possible joint venture, though no agreement had been signed.

Nestle India rose as much as 10 percent after India's FSSAI-approved lab found Nestle's Maggi noodles to be safe.

Bharti Airtel gained 3 percent after reporting better-than-expected earnings on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Karen Rebelo; Editing by Sunil Nair)