Indian shares at five-week high

Indian shares overcame a choppy early session and climbed for a third day to their best close in five weeks on Thursday, with export-driven software services companies among the gainers in anticipation of US moves to bolster its flagging economy.
A revival in foreign fund buying over the past few days also underpinned the market, which has been one of the worst performers this year due to rising interest rates and slowing growth. The 30-share BSE index rose 0.59 percent, or 100.54, to 17,165.54, its highest close since August 5, with half its components gaining.
The 50-share NSE index, Nifty, closed 0.56 percent higher at 5,153.25 points. Sofware services bellwether Infosys, market leader Tata Consultancy Services and No 3 exporter Wipro, who get most of their revenue from the United States, rose 2.1, 0.5 and 2.6 percent respectively.
Energy major Reliance Industries shrugged off remarks from a government auditor and rallied 2.3 percent, taking gains over three days to more than 8 percent on expectations the company will be able to raise gas output. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) criticised Reliance and the government over development of the country's key natural gas resource in the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin and called for revamping profit sharing arrangement from oil and gas blocks.
Reliance, India's largest listed firm, has been under fire in recent months from the upstream regulator, investors and analysts over slowing gas output from its KG blocks, and its shares have suffered. Earlier this year, Reliance sold a 30 percent stake in 22 oil and gas blocks, some in the KG basin, to BP in a $7.2 billion deal, in part to benefit from BP's expertise in deepwater exploration.
Reliance shares, which have the heaviest weight on the main index, are down 19.5 percent in the year to date, compared with a 16.3 percent fall in the benchmark index. Drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories ended up 4.1 percent on reports the company would release a generic version of cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in the United States at the end of November as planned.
Banks were mixed on concerns the central bank may again raise rates next week. ICICI Bank rose 2.4 percent, while market leader State Bank of India and HDFC Bank fell 0.2 and 0.9 percent respectively. The Reserve Bank of India remains bent on fighting domestic inflation despite weakening global conditions, officials with direct knowledge of policymaking said on Wednesday, a week before it is widely expected to raise interest rates once again.
Top engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors and power equipment maker Thermax gained between 1.9 percent and 3.4 percent on value buying, dealers said. In the broader market, there were 1.57 gainers for every declining stock on heavy volume of about 650.88 million shares.