MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--Indian shares closed slightly higher Monday, in line with gains in most regional markets, after the leaders of the Group of Eight major economies signaled their desire for Greece to remain in the euro zone. However, shares lost most of their early gains due to continued worries as the rupee weakened to another record low against the U.S. dollar, and as investors kept their exposures low, say dealers. The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-stock Sensitive Index rose 30.51 points, or 0.2%, to end at 16,183.26, after trading between 16,149.61 and 16,298.39 during the session. Still, the benchmark is down nearly 7% over the past month. The National Stock Exchange's 50-stock Nifty index added 14.60 points, or 0.3%, to close at 4,906.05. Trading volume in the BSE's cash segment fell to INR15.56 billion from Friday's INR19.86 billion. Advancers beat decliners 1,643 to 1,027, while 130 stocks remained unchanged. "There is a good amount of buying in bank and capital goods shares as these two sectors were beaten down given the slow economic growth," said Alex Mathews, head of technical and derivative research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. Mathews added that there could have been some covering up of earlier sales by investors ahead of the May derivative expiry next week, and that the market could once again fall to find technical support at lower levels in case of any negatives from Europe or on the domestic front with a weakening rupee. The rupee fell to a new record low of 54.91 late Monday, beyond its previous low of 54.90 touched Friday. State Bank of India jumped 3.4% at INR2,007.40, as investors bought the shares on hopes that the bank will continue showing better results in the coming quarters on easing worries over bad loans. Also, brokerage CLSA raised the rating on State Bank of India to Buy from Underperform, and raised the target to INR2,350 from INR2,290. "Weaker asset quality has been our concern for over two years, but we believe corrective measures have begun to yield results," the house said. "State Bank of India's future asset quality trends will be better than other state-owned banks as it has been ahead in recognizing stress and taking corrective actions." Engineering company Larsen & Toubro climbed 2.4% to INR1,189 as the company received orders valued at INR7.44 billion. Bharat Heavy Electricals added 2.5% to INR206.45 on news the company got an order from a state utility to build a 1,320 megawatt plant in western India. Software exporters were among the losers, ignoring the weaker rupee. Infosys fell 1.7% to INR2,344, while Wipro slipped 2.2% to INR382.15. -By Raghavendra Upadhyaya, Dow Jones Newswires; 91 22 61456103; raghavendra.upadhyaya@dowjones.com

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