A day before the Reserve Bank's quarterly review tomorrow, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today closed higher by a marginal 74 points even as brokers and fund operators maintained a low profile.
The 30-share Sensex posted a gain of 74.17 points at 14,349.11 on the back of a firm trend in capital goods stocks, led by Larsen and Toubro.
The National Stock Exchange index Nifty also rose by 20.25 points at 4,332.10. It touched the day's high of 4352.65 and a low of 4282.25 points.
Market participants said investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of RBI's quarterly monetary policy meet tomorrow. They said investors fear that another round of tightening measures to curb high inflation could hit the growth prospects of economy.
Trading volume fell sharply and key indices moved in a narrow range on alternate small bouts of trading.
Capital goods stocks gained the most pushing sectoral index to 11,906.81, up by 168.54 points after Larsen and Toubro posted encouraging quarterly results. L&T gained Rs 97.95 at Rs 2,723.55.
The second best performer was oil and gas index which rose 148.48 points at 9,652.90, aided by a steep rise in stocks of Reliance Industries, ONGC, GAIL and Reliance Petroleum.