Surrendering some of its early gains, the BSE benchmark Sensex was trading higher by 53 points at 20,002.17 in late morning deals on the back of buying mainly in FMCG, Healthcare, IT, Realty and Teck sectors coupled with higher Asian cues.
The 30-share index resumed higher at 19,999.51 and firmed up further to 20,059.03 before quoting at 20,002.17 at 10.30 a.m., showing a gain of 53.44 points of 0.27 per cent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved up by 6.55 points or 0.11 per cent to 5,979.85 at 10.30 a.m.
Major gainer were ONGC (2.29 per cent), Hindalco (1.96 per cent), HUL (1.96 per cent), Infosys (1.76 per cent), Cipla (1.54 per cent), Wipro (1.54 per cent), Jindal Steel (1.54 per cent) and Dr Reddy’s (1.13 per cent).
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank on Wednesday said it has decided to conduct a special 3-day repo at an interest rate of 10.25 per cent for a notified amount of Rs 25,000 crore with a view to enabling banks to meet the liquidity requirements of mutual funds.
Asian markets were mostly higher in their early trade after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday said Fed’s asset purchases “are by no means on a preset course” and could even be expanded should economic conditions warrant.
Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia were up 0.01 per cent to 0.56 per cent while indices in China, Singapore and South Korea were down by 0.5 per cent to 0.78 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs. 26.09 crore on Wednesday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
