Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 146 points, Nifty up 25 points

Indian equity benchmarks continued their gaining streak for
the third straight session on Wednesday helped by the strength in Asian
markets. Sentiments remained positive throughout the session, taking support
from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monthly bulletin stating that India is
poised to consolidate and accelerate the economic recovery over the rest of the
year and the fight against inflation will be ‘dogged and prolonged’.

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The Sensex rose by 146.59 points or 0.25% to close at
59,107.19. During the day, it rallied 439.09 points or 0.74% to 59,399.69. The
Nifty advanced 25.30 points or 0.14% to end at 17,512.25.

The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Midcap
index up by 1.11% and the Smallcap index up by 0.74%. The top gaining sectoral
indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.07%, PSU up by 1.95%, Realty up
by 1.87%, Utilities up by 1.85% and Power up by 1.82%, while there were no
losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

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Top gainers from the Sensex pack were Nestle up by 2.14%,
HDFC 2.13%, Reliance Industries 1.88%, ITC 1.79%, Axis Bank 1.69%, HDFC Bank
1.02%, Ultratech Cement 0.89%, Power Grid Corp 0.68%, Kotak Mahindra 0.50% and
Titan Company 0.19%.

Among the laggards were NTPC down by 1.77%, State Bank of
India 1.64%, Bajaj Finserv 1.56%, HCL Tech 1.41%, Infosys by 1.41%, and Dr.
Reddy Labs 1.12%.

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The Indian rupee plunged by 61 paise to dip below the 83 mark for first time and closed at a record low of 83.01 against the US dollar.

Asian markets ended mostly higher with the Hang Seng up by
1.82%, the Nikkei 225 up by 1.42%, and the KOSPI Composite up by 1.36%.

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European stock exchanges were trading on a mixed note in
mid-session deals. The US stock market ended higher on Tuesday.

Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark was
0.72% higher at USD 90.54 per barrel.

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According to the stock exchange data, foreign institutional
investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market on Tuesday as they
offloaded shares worth Rs 153.40 crore.