Indian shares rise but choppy; Bharti trims gains

* Sentiment lifted on some foreign buying

* Bharti climbs on talks to buy stake in MTN
(Updates to midday)

MUMBAI, May 25 (Reuters) - Indian shares climbed 1 percent
on Monday but trading was choppy as euphoria over hopes of
quick pro-market reforms from a new government gave way to
sporadic profit-taking.

Traders said market sentiment was briefly lifted as some
foreign funds bought into infrastructure firm Larsen & Toubro
(LART.BO) and private-sector lender ICICI Bank (ICBK.BO).

Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) rose as much as 8.5 percent after
the top telecoms firm said it was in talks to buy 49 percent in
MTN (MTNJ.J), Africa's largest telecoms firm, but later fell
back and was trading up 1.3 percent at 869 rupees.
[ID:nSP489098]

"Prima facie, it looks exciting for Bharti as it gets
strong operations in Africa and in the Middle East," Deven
Choksey, chief executive of K.R. Choksey Share and Stock
Brokers, said.

"But what Bharti management needs to answer is on the
amount of cash that MTN's operations have in various countries
and can they take it out."

By 11:51 a.m. (0621 GMT), the 30-share BSE index .BSESN
was up 0.7 percent at 14,991.67 points, with 23 stocks
advancing, after falling 0.5 percent at one stage and then
rising 1 percent.

The benchmark had risen 14.1 percent, their most in 17
years, last week after the ruling coalition won a general
election decisively during the previous weekend. This took its
gains from a 2009 low in early March to more than 70 percent.

"After a big pop-up, valuations have become stretched. Even
some of the big foreign funds are willing to now sell some
front-line stocks that have risen a lot," said Paras Bothra,
head of research at Ashika Stock Broking in Kolkata.

L&T rose 1.3 percent to 1,318.90 rupees, while ICICI Bank
gained 1.7 percent to 715 rupees.

Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.BO) and Reliance Industries
(RELI.BO) fell on a newspaper report the new government plans
to cap profits of oil producers as part of a subsidy-sharing
system for the sector.

Reliance, which has the biggest weight in the main index,
fell 0.3 percent to 2,177.40 rupees, while state-run explorer
ONGC shed 3 percent to 1,014 rupees.

In the broader section, gainers led advancers by more than
8.5 to 1 on relatively heavy volume of 365.9 million shares.

The 50-share NSE index .NSEI was up 0.6 percent at
4,263.10.

MAIN TOP 3 BY VOLUME

* Suzlon Energy (SUZL.BO) on 74.2 million shares

* Satyam Computer (SATY.BO) on 13.8 million shares

* Ispat Industries ISPT.BO on 10.3 million shares

STOCKS ON THE MOVE

* Suzlon Energy Ltd (SUZL.BO) fell 3.8 percent to 90.50
rupees after a term sheet showed the wind turbine maker's
founders are selling about $120 million worth of existing
shares at a discount of up to 3 percent to Friday's closing
price. [ID:nHKG169676]

* Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd (RANB.BO) rose 7.4 percent to
237.15 rupees after majority stake holder Japanese drugmaker
Daiichi Sankyo (4568.T) said Malvinder Singh, chairman and
chief executive of the Indian pharma firm, had resigned and
named replacements for him on Sunday. Dealers said the new
management's global know-how will help the company.
[ID:nLO383257]

FACTORS TO WATCH
* For technical analysis double click on www.reutersindia.net
* Indian rupee drops on strong dlr overseas; stx key
[INR/]
* Indian bond yield at 5-wk high ahead of supplies
[IN/]
* Dollar steady near 5-month low, U.S. auctions eyed
[FRX/]
* Oil falls towards $61 on N.Korea nuclear test [O/R]
* N.Korea nuke test hits stocks, impact limited [MKTS/GLOB]
* Wall St slips late as budget worries linger

[.N] * For closing rates of Indian ADRs

INADR (Reporting by Pratish Narayanan; Editing by
Ranjit Gangadharan)