Nifty hits fresh record high ; Infosys, RIL up 2%

IT, FMCG, Oil and Gas shares among the top gainers

The Nifty touched a record high of 8,178.40 with information technology shares  leading gains after the US Federal Reserve's comment on the US economy. Further, the FDI norms for the real estate sector also boosted sentiment.

At 15:10 hrs, the Sensex was up 250 points or at 27,348 and the Nifty gained 79 points at 8,169.

However, the broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices. The Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4% each as compared to the near 1% gain seen on the Sensex.

Rupee

The Rupee is currently at day's low of 61.48 versus its previous close of 61.32/33. Traders say month-end dollar demand from importers is hurting sentiment.

Sectors & Stocks

All the sectoral indices were in green led by Realty Index which was up over 3% followed by IT, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Oil and Gas and Realty were the top sectoral movers with gains between 1-3%.

IT exporters which earn major part of their revenues from exports to the US firmed up post US Federal Reserve Bank's encouraging comments about the US economy.  Among IT shares, Infosys, TCS, Wipro gained 0.6-2.2% and were among the top Sensex gainers.

Tech Mahindra surged nearly 4% after its reported encouraging July-September quarter earnings backed by strong growth in the US and better client mining.

Oil and Gas shares also witnessed buying at lower levels after the recent correction. Reliance Industries, ONGC and GAIL are up between 1-2.5%.

Hindalco, Dr Reddys, HDFC, HUL and L&T up 0.8-1.7% were some of the other notable gainers.

Auto shares lost sheen and are down on profit booking. M&M lost 0.3% while Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were flat. Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki gained 2% after the company reported a 29% increase in net profit at Rs 863 crore for the quarter ended September 2014. It was Rs 670 crore in the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, ICICI Bank, SBI and Sesa Sterlite down 0.4-0.7%. ICICI Bank slipped into red as bad loans rose even as the bank's Q2 profits rose.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1490 stocks advanced while 1300 stocks declined.

Global Markets

Asian stocks were mostly lower and the dollar surged to a three-week high versus the yen after the U.S. Federal Reserve ended its massive quantitative easing programme, as expected, but laced its economic assessment with a tinge of hawkishness.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.6%.

Tokyo's Nikkei bucked the trend in Asia and rose 0.7%, as investors took heart from a significantly weaker yen and outlook for exporters following the Fed's optimism over the U.S. economy.

In a statement on Wednesday after a two-day meeting, the Fed ended its quantitative easing programme of bond purchases. At its peak, the programme pumped $85 billion a month into the financial system.

The Fed did retain its basic guidance that overnight borrowing costs would remain near zero for a "considerable time".