Indian shares see best day in over two weeks as Reliance, autos climb

BENGALURU, April 21 (Reuters) - Indian shares marked their best session since April 4 on Thursday, buoyed by sharp gains in conglomerate Reliance Industries and beaten-down information technology stocks, while automakers climbed to two-month highs.

The NSE Nifty 50 index jumped 1.49% to 17,392.6, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.53% to 57,911.68.

The indexes are still down marginally for the month on worries around the Ukraine crisis, surging inflation and a rout in technology stocks following weak earnings from Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys.

The Nifty Auto index was the best performing sub-index, climbing 2.2%. Top carmaker Maruti Suzuki advanced 2.8%, while truckmaker Eicher Motors surged 4.5%.

Heavyweight Reliance rose for a third session and settled at a record high. Morgan Stanley raised its target price on the conglomerate's stock earlier this week and said it expects up to a 10% boost to the company's net asset value in anticipation of quicker hydrogen monetization.

Three-wheeler maker Atul Auto surged 11.7% after saying https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachLive/14a34d9a-569a-455a-a61a-690a9869bec3.pdf its unit will partner with Valeo and Honda Power Pack Energy India for electric vehicles with battery swapping solution.

IT services provider HCL Technologies was up 0.9% ahead of its quarterly results.

The Nifty IT index, which plunged to eight-month lows earlier this week, closed 1.4% higher.

Steelmaker Jindal Steel and Power slid 2.9% after reports that India's federal financial crime fighting agency had raided its offices over suspected violation of foreign exchange regulations. ($1 = 76.3520 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)