Sensex up 170 pts ahead of FOMC meet, Nifty ends above 7700

Moneycontrol Bureau

Equity benchmarks rallied further for the second consecutive session Tuesday, tracking upmove in global peers ahead of Federal Reserve's two-day meeting tonight. Oil, FMCG and auto stocks gained strength while banks stocks were under pressure.

The market gained strength in last couple of hours of trade after seeing consolidation from opening. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 170.09 points or 0.68 percent to 25320.44 and the 50-share NSE Nifty ended slightly above 7700-mark, up 50.85 points or 0.66 percent to 7700.90.

The broader markets also gained in line with benchmarks. The BSE Midcap index climbed 0.6 percent and Smallcap was up 0.7 percent.

FOMC's last policy meeting of the year will begin tonight. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike US interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, the first hike since June 2006.

European markets were strong with the France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE rising 1.5-2 percent. However, Asian markets closed lower with the Nikkei down 1.7 percent. Oil prices rebounded from seven-year low with the Brent crude up 2.4 percent to USD 38.81 a barrel and NYMEX crude up 2 percent to USD 37.04 a barrel (at 16 hours IST).

On the home turf, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained 0.7 percent as the subsidiary of country's largest drug maker has divested its US manufacturing facility - Bryan (Ohio) unit to Nostrum Laboratories Inc.

Reliance Industries, Lupin, Tata Motors, HUL and ONGC were top gainers on the Sensex, up more than 2 percent followed by HDFC with 1.6 percent gain. ICICI Bank, Wipro and NTPC fell more than 1 percent.

In broader space, Adani Enterprises climbed 4.5 percent after the Australian court has dismissed Green Group's challenge to Adani Coalmine.

On the Bombay Stock Exchange, about 1575 shares advanced against declinnig of 1071 shares.