Nifty ends higher in choppy session; rises 18 points

Market witnessed a choppy range-bound momentum as bouts of buying in select heavy-weights during final hours of trade helped the benchmark Nifty to garner 17.55 points and close at 7,982.90.
Banks and other financial stocks got a boost following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that banks have promised greater rate cuts in coming weeks.
While, index heavy weight Reliance Industries gained on announcement of December launch of its long awaited 4G telecom services.
Bouts of buying was also witnessed in key FMCG, infra and pharma counters and the broaders mid-cap and small-cap shares.
However, IT, metal and realty saw selling pressure.

Elsewhere, Asian markets closed closed mixed.

The broader 50-share barometer opened lower at 7,959.85 and hovered between 7,995.60 and 7,940.30 before closing at 7,982.90, a gain of 17.55 points or 0.22 per cent.
Stockwise, the major gainers were Tata Power (3.79 per cent), Bajaj Auto (3.29 per cent), ICICI Bank (2.58 per cent), Kotak Bank (2.36 per cent) and HDFC (2.24 per cent).
While notable losers were NMDC (2.58 per cent), TCS (2.55 per cent), VEDL (2.23 per cent), Hindalco (2.06 per cent) and HCL Tech (2.02 per cent).
Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 622.89 crore yesterday.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 12,622.83 crore as compared to Rs 15,405.69 yesterday.

A total of 6,815.11 lakh shares changed hands in 61,53,741 trades and the total market capitalisation of the NSE stood at Rs 94,08,959 crore.