BENGALURU: Indian shares rose for a fourth straight session on Wednesday, with gains seen across the board, as Asian peers inched higher after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sounded less hawkish than expected in a testimony to Congress.

The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.54% to 18,152.40 by 0440 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.57% to 60,964.11. The blue-chip indexes have clocked roughly 2% gains for two consecutive weeks and are already up 2% this week.

Asian shares rose on Wednesday and the Nasdaq and S&P 500 recorded overnight their best sessions of 2022, after Powell said that the economy could handle the COVID-19 surge and tighter monetary policy.

Indian shares gain for third day on IT boost ahead of earnings

In Mumbai, 40 of the 50 stocks on the Nifty 50 index were trading in positive territory.

Nifty's realty sub-index advanced the most with a 3.2% rise, bringing its weekly gain so far to nearly 6%.

Nifty's metal index, which dropped 1.9% in the previous session, rose over 1%, led by a 3.3% rise in state-run mineral producer NMDC.

Nifty's IT index was flat. Technology major Infosys was up 0.6%, while Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro were unchanged. The companies will be reporting their third-quarter results later in the day.

One cannot rule out the possibility of a consolidation in markets and going forward, earnings numbers and the upcoming budget will determine further direction, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking said.

IT stocks added 55% in 2020 and 59.6% in 2021 as investors bet on demand boom as people turned online during the pandemic.

Telecom operator Vodafone India, which slumped over 20% in the previous session, jumped 6.4%.

Meanwhile, the country logged 194,720 fresh COVID-19 cases and 442 deaths.

Eyes are also on consumer price inflation data due later in the day, with a Reuters poll of 41 economists showing retail inflation spiking to 5.80% last month from 4.91% in November.