MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) nudged 0.3% higher on Wednesday, with Reliance Industries (RIL) leading the gains, helped by small gains in Asia.

The BSE Sensex closed 0.27%, or 45.79 points, higher to finish at 17,098.33, with 18 of its components gaining. Investors remain cautious after the main index rose 3.4% last week, posting the best weekly gains so far in 2010. “The market may consolidate for a while. It cannot have a one-way movement,” said Naresh Kumar Garg, CEO of Sahara Mutual Fund referring to the steep rise after the February 26 Union Budget.

FIIs have poured in around $1.8 billion in Indian equities, for the six sessions to March 8. Investors await the January-March quarter earnings for further cues. “While topline could show good growth, there could be some pressure on the margins due to higher input costs. These quarterly numbers could set the trend for the market to move subsequently,” said Mr Garg.

RIL, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, rose 1.8% to Rs 1,008.05. It had declined more than 3% over the past four sessions. Earlier this month, Macquarie said in a note RIL is poised to witness strong and highly visible earnings growth over the next two years.

“We believe a recent tripling in GRMs (gross refining margins), further gas ramp up and shift to cheap in-house gas shall herald 4QFY10 as an inflection point,” the brokerage, which has an “outperform” rating on the stock, noted. Tata Steel, the world’s eighth largest steelmaker by output, edged 0.4% lower after its vice-chairman said iron ore prices are headed as much as 35% higher this year and will likely pressure the profit margins of steel companies.

Auto makers raced on expectations of good sales growth. India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors rose nearly 1% while top utility vehicle maker and top motorbike maker Hero Honda rose 0.6% and 2.9% respectively. Maruti Suzuki India, however, bucked the trend and closed 1.3% lower. IT bellwether Infosys Technologies shed 0.9% as traders locked gains after the stock rose more than 2% over the previous three sessions.

In the broader market, gainers outpaced decliners in the ratio of 1.4:1, while 403 million shares changed hands on the BSE, lower than Tuesday’s volume. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.3% to 5,116.25.