Sensex, Nifty gain for fourth straight trading session as financial stocks rise

India's stock market rose for a fourth straight session today, as the central bank's lending reforms boosted financial stocks.

The Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai. (PTI)

The 30-share S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.17% to 81,926.75 points while the wider Nifty 50 ended the day 0.12% higher at 25,108.3 points. Twelve out of the 16 major indices advanced on the day. The broader midcap and small caps gained 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively. The Nifty Bank—led by 0.9% gains each in HDFC Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd.—rose 0.2%. Bajaj Finance Ltd. rose 0.8%.

“The initial updates from lenders indicate that credit growth has started to pick up. This is positive for the financial space,” Pankaj Pandey, head of retail research at ICICI Securities, told Reuters.

However, "IT, which is another heavyweight sector, is not expected to witness any significant recovery in the near term, given the uncertainty over discretionary spending in the U.S.," ICICI Securities' Pandey said.

Over the weekend, HDFC Bank reported credit growth of 10%, while Kotak Mahindra Bank posted a 15.8% growth in loan disbursals for the September quarter.

The gains in financial stocks were also supported by the Reserve Bank of India's move last week to ease lending norms for capital markets and large companies.