(RTTNews) – Indian shares ended Wednesday’s session modestly higher as oil prices pulled back from recent highs and investors braced for a closely watched Federal Reserve rate decision later in the day.
The U.S. dollar pulled back from near multi-week highs, yields on U.S. Treasuries held steady and oil prices edged lower, helping underpin investor sentiment.
Oil prices fell nearly 1 percent today after industry data showed an unexpected build in U.S. crude inventories and reports emerged that Saudi Arabia is offering more crude oil to Asian refiners through ship-to-ship transfer off Oman’s Sohar port, helping ease concerns about the scale of Middle East supply disruptions.
The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex rose 332.63 points, or 0.45 percent, to 74,336.45, while the NSE Nifty index surged 99 points, or 0.43 percent, to 23,217.60.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes ended narrowly mixed showing little change.
The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,344 shares falling while 1,990 shares advanced and 227 shares closed unchanged.
Among the top gainers, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan Company, BEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Trent, Axis Bank, SBI and ITC rallied 1-2 percent.
IT stocks succumbed to profit taking after rising sharply in the previous session. Tech Mahindra dropped 1.3 percent, Infosys shed 1.4 percent and TCS lost 1.6 percent.
