Markets ended higher on Thursday supported by buying in oil marketing companies amid hopes of growth recovery in Asia's third-biggest economy after government partially deregulated diesel prices today.
State-owned Indian oil marketing companies can now raise diesel prices in line with increases in global crude oil prices, Oil Minister Veerappa Moily said on Thursday.
The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 146.40 points and ended at 19,964.03 while the 50-share Nifty gained 37.35 points to end at 6,039.20.
Meanwhile, IT pack also notched up significant gains after slew of upbeat quarterly results by sector heavy-weights raised hopes of growth recovery in the beleaguered technology sector. HCL Technologies, Wipro gained 2-5% on BSE today.
In the results calendar, Hero MotoCorp is scheduled later today while HDFC Bank, ITC, Reliance Industries and Wipro on Jan 18.
Globally, Asian markets dropped ahead of key Chinese economic data including fourth-quarter GDP, December industrial output, retail sales and house price on Friday, which will offer clues on the health of Asia's biggest economy.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.07% to 23,340, Taiwan's Weighted index fell 1% to 7,616, Singapore's Straits Times was down 0.34% to 3,198 while China's Shanghai Composite declined 1% to 2,285 and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.1% to 10,609.
European stocks traded on a mixed note. France's CAC gained 0.02% to 3,709, Germany's DAX dropped 0.15% to 7,679 while UK's FTSE fell 0.1% to 6,097.
Back home, oil &gas, real-estate, technology, IT, PSUs gained while capital goods,
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