Sensex rises 100 pts; Bharti up 4% ahead of cabinet meet

Indian equity benchmarks and broader markets continued to trade higher with more than 0.5% gains led by banks, telecom and oil & gas stocks. Pharma, metals and auto stocks too were on buyers' radar. The Indian rupee rose by 28 paise to 55.15 against the US dollar.

The BSE benchmark moved up 99.15 points to 17,498.13 and the NSE benchmark was up 28.35 points at 5,306.95, though there was somewhat profit booking.

Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel shot up nearly 4% as sources said Cabinet will consider four options on prospective spectrum pricing on Tuesday. Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular gained 2-3%.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank rose 1.7% while its rivals State Bank of India and HDFC Bank were up 0.5%. Housing finance company HDFC went up 1%.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC were up 0.5% and 1.4%, respectively. Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro rose 0.9%.

The market breadth was strong as about three shares advanced for every share falling on the National Stock Exchange. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.7% each.

In the second line shares, Heidelberg Cement surged 7%. Bajaj Hindusthan, Crompton Greaves and Jain Irrigation gained 3%.

Asian shares rose on Tuesday as manufacturing data around the world highlighted the drag on growth from the protracted euro zone debt crisis, raising expectations that major central banks will take further policy steps to support the fragile economy.

Hang Seng jumped over 1.5%. Shanghai, Nikkei, Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times were up 0.6-1%.

(With inputs from Reuters)