Indian
equity benchmarks were holding gains in the late morning session, with both
Sensex and Nifty trading in the green, on the back of positive cues from other
Asian markets. Investors are keeping an eye on US consumer price data followed
by Thursday’s retail sales report. These are the last major data ahead of the
Federal Reserve’s interest rate move next week. The Fed is expected to continue
with its rate hike policy.

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The
Sensex was trading at 60,517.71, up by 402.58 points or 0.67% after trading in
the range of 60,381.02 and 60,551.07. On the index, there were 24 stocks
advancing and 6 stocks declining.

The
broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Midcap index up by 0.46% and
the Small cap index up by 0.42%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE
were Metal up by 0.87%, Consumer Durables up by 0.81%, Basic Materials up by
0.80%, FMCG up by 0.78% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.49%, while Oil &
Gas down by 0.20% and Utilities down by 0.05% were the only losing indices on
BSE.

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The
top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 4.77%, Bharti Airtel up by
2.01%, Titan Co up by 1.49%, Nestle up by 1.41% and Power Grid up by 1.25%. On
the flip side, HCL Tech fell 0.39%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab 0.33%, TCS 0.27%, Ultratech
Cement 0.12% and Mahindra & Mahindra 0.08%.

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The
Nifty was trading at 18,053.95, up by 117.60 points or 0.66% after trading in
the range of 18,015.45 and 18,065.50. On the index, there were 36 stocks
advancing and 14 stocks declining.

The
top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finserv up by 4.82%, HDFC Life Insurance up by
2.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.96%, Titan Co up by 1.65% and Nestle up by 1.34%.
Cipla down by 0.73%, Shree Cement down by 0.48%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.43%,
HCL Tech down by 0.38% and TCS down by 0.35% were the top losers.

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Asian
markets were trading mostly in green with the Hang Seng increasing 47.81 points
or 0.25% to 19,410.06, Nikkei 225 surging 72.52 points or 0.25% to 28,614.63,
Taiwan Weighted strengthening 66.06 points or 0.45% to 14,873.49, Shanghai
Composite gaining 3.48 points or 0.11% to 3,265.53, KOSPI rising 61.28 points
or 2.57% to 2,445.56, Straits Times advancing 16.19 points or 0.49% to 3,290.91
and Jakarta Composite soaring 66.10 points or 0.91% to 7,320.56.