The 30-share Sensex rose 22.42 points to end at 19,245.70 and the 50-share Nifty gained 8.65 point at 5,822.25 levels.
The Federal Open Market Committee will end its two-day policy meeting today, with the outcome expected at around mid-night (Indian Standard Time).
Market participants are waiting for any cues on tapering of third-round of bond-buying programme popularly known as ‘quantitative easing’ after Fed Chairman Ben S Bernanke said asset purchases could be scaled back should the U.S. employment outlook show “sustainable improvement.”
“While the Fed Chairman may attempt to give more clarity about tapering off QE3, it will be difficult to reduce market uncertainty because there does not seem to be a consensus in the FOMC on an explicit criterion for stopping or tapering QE3,” a note from Rabobank Financial Markets Research showed.
Asian stocks ended mixed amid looming uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying plans.
Globally, the Nikkei rose 2% to 13,245, Singapore Straits Times declined 0.4% to 3,216, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1% to 20,986 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.7% at 2,143.
The European markets traded lower today. France’s CAC declined 0.6% to 3,837, Germany’s DAX fell 0.4% to 8,196 while UK’s FTSE was down 0.5% to 6,341.
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