INDIA STOCKS-Financials, IT lift Indian shares as oil, Fed fears ease

By Bharath Rajeswaran

Oct 5 (Reuters) - Indian shares advanced on Monday after their longest weekly losing streak in 25 years, supported by a pullback in oil prices and easing concerns over aggressive US monetary tightening.

The Nifty 50 .NSEI rose 0.56% to 22,545.25, while the Sensex .BSESN gained 0.62% to 72,359.72, as of 10:06 a.m. IST.

India's blue-chips have fallen for eight straight weeks through Friday, pressured by record foreign selling, elevated oil prices and a sharp rise in global bond yields.

"The sharp correction has pushed the indices into an oversold zone and therefore a possibility of a technical pullback from current levels cannot be ruled out," said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities.

On Monday, market sentiment improved after softer-than-expected US jobs data reduced expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike later this month, offering relief to emerging-market assets, while a drop in crude prices also helped.

Thirteen of the 16 major sectors rose while the broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 added about 0.6% and 0.8%, respectively.

Financials led the rise after positive quarterly business updates. Banks .NSEBANK and financials .NIFTYFIN gained 0.8% each, while state-owned lenders .NIFTYPSU added 1.7%.

HDFC Bank HDBK.NS rose 1% after the country's largest private lender named Anup Bagchi as its next CEO for a three-year term.

Punjab National Bank PNBK.NS gained 2.8% after the state-run lender posted global advances growth of 14.8% in the September quarter. Bank of Baroda BOB.NS rose 2.5% after reporting 18% growth in quarterly advances.

Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS rose 4.3% after posting an 11% year-on-year growth in new loans in the September quarter.

India's IT index .NIFTYIT gained 1.1%. Accenture's better-than-expected revenue growth, bookings and commentary represent a "neutral-to-positive read-through for Indian IT," said analysts at PhillipCapital.