The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rose for third day in a row on Wednesday led by gains in Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen & Toubro. The benchmarks opened higher and dipped marginally in the red in noon trades but soon recovered on the back of buying interest in metal, telecom, oil & gas and banking shares. The Sensex rose as much as 388 points to reclaim 41,000-mark and the Nifty 50 index moved closer to symbolically important level of 12,100 at the day's highest level as investors awaited the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) policy decision on Thursday.
The Sensex ended 353 points or 0.8 per cent higher at 41,143 and the Nifty 50 index advanced 109 points or 0.9 per cent to settle at 12,089.
In the last three sessions, the Sensex has climbed 3.54 per cent (1,407.13 points) and the Nifty jumped 3.66 per cent (428.4 points).
Investors awaited RBI's policy outcome on Thursday, where it is widely expected that rising inflation will keep the central bank from cutting interest rates, news agency Reuters reported.
Sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Metal index's over 3 per cent gain. S&P BSE Telecom, Capital Goods, Realty, Bankex, Industrials, Energy, Basic Materials and Oil & Gas indexes also rose between 1-3 per cent each.
On the other hand, S&P BSE Utilities index was top loser, down 0.12 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap index rose 1.2 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap index advanced 0.6 per cent.
Tata Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 11 per cent to Rs 183 after the company unveiled 26 new vehicles at the Auto Expo 2020. Yes Bank, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Bharat Petroleum, Vedanta, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, and UPL were also among the gainers, up 3-8.6 per cent each.
On the flipside, Zee Entertainment, Hero MotoCorp, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Power Grid, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India and Adani Ports were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,354 shares ended higher while 1,113 closed lower on the BSE.
