Mumbai: Benchmark indices ended higher on Wednesday (December 11) amid buying in the last hour of trade. The Sensex closed higher by 172.69 points or 0.43%, at 40,412.57, while Nifty was up 53.40 points or 0.45% at 11,910.20. Major gainers on the Nifty were GAIL, Zee Entertainment, NTPC, IOC, and ONGC, while Yes Bank, Hindalco Industries, Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp and Bharti Airtel were losers.
Except for metal stocks, all other sectoral indices ended higher led by the IT, energy, auto, and infra.
The rupee today rose 14 paise higher at 70.78 against the US dollar amid softening crude oil prices and weakening of the greenback vis-a-vis major global currencies. At the forex market, the domestic unit opened at 70.87 against the US dollar.
The rupee fluctuated between a high of 70.74 and a low of 70.91, before being quoted at 70.78 against the US dollar.
Equity benchmark indices edged higher with most sectoral parameters in the green during early hours on Wednesday. At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 170 points to 40,410, while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 48 points at 11,904.
Except for Nifty auto, pharma and PSU bank, all sectoral indices were in the positive zone with marginal gains. Among stocks, IT majors showed some gains with Tata Consultancy Services up by 1.5 per cent at Rs 2,043 per share. Tech Mahindra added the gain of 1.3 per cent while Infosys moved up by 0.7 per cent.
The other prominent winners were Bharti Infratel, GAIL, ICICI Bank, ITC and Coal India, but the share price of Yes Bank fell by 7.3 per cent after its board of directors said it may consider 500 million dollar investment offer from the Citax Group. Power Grid Corporation, Hindustan Lever, Hero MotoCorp and pharma major Cipla too were on a low swing.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks drifted as US-China trade talks showed little progress ahead of a weekend deadline for the imposition of additional US tariffs.
MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan moved 0.1 per cent higher. Japan`s Nikkei traded 0.2 per cent lower but Shanghai blue chips added 0.1 per cent. Investors` focus was locked on the upcoming US Federal Reserve`s policy meeting and its outlook for the economy as well as Britain`s election.
