Mumbai: Ahead of Goods and Services Tax (GST) council meeting on Wednesday (December 18), the Sensex closed 206.40 points higher or 0.5 percent at 41558.57, while the Nifty gained 56.70 points at 12221.70. The top gainer stocks were M&M, Sun Pharma, and Asian Paints, while Tata Motors DVR, Tata Motors and YES Bank were laggards. About 1167 shares have advanced, 1292 shares declined, while 211 stocks remain unchanged.


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Earlier in the day, equity benchmark indices continued their record-setting rally. The investor risk appetite also appeared to be gradually improving on the expectation of further steps in the upcoming Budget to revive consumption and attract investments. At 12:30 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 122 points to 41,474 while the Nifty 50 gained by 33 points at 12,198. At the National Stock Exchange, Nifty IT up by 0.86 per cent and metal by 0.83 per cent.


Among stocks, Wipro added gains of 1.2 per cent to level at Rs 247.80 per share. Tata Consultancy Services rose by 1.2 per cent, and HCL Technologies by 1 per cent. Metal majors JSW Steel and Tata Steel also edged higher by 1.9 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. 


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During the early morning, the Sensex opened 60.66 points up or 0.15 percent at 41412.83, while the Nifty was up 15.90 points at 12180.90, after witnessing fresh highs on Tuesday following gains in Asian and US markets. Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp are the top gainer stocks, while NTPC, HDFC, and Vedanta are the top drags.


Among the sectors, metals are trading in the red while the Auto index is up in the green. About 472 shares have advanced, 170 shares declined, and 46 shares remain unchanged.


On Tuesday, the BSE S&P Sensex closed 413 points or 1 per cent higher at 41,352 while the Nifty 50 moved up by 111 points at 12,165. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green except for Nifty pharma and realty. Nifty metal climbed by 2.8 per cent while Nifty IT closed 1.8 per cent higher from its previous close. 


Among stocks, metals witnessed dramatic intra-day profits with Tata Steel gaining by 4.64 per cent at Rs 440.55 per cent, Vedanta and Hindalco moving up by 3.3 per cent each while JSW Steel ticked up by 1.9 per cent. Bharti Airtel was up by 4.5 per cent, Tata Motors by 2.9 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.6 per cent, Infosys by 2.3 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services by 1.9 per cent. However, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra and Titan showed some losses.


Asian stocks, however, camped out at 18-month peaks on Wednesday having climbed for five straight sessions, while the British pound was licking fresh wounds as revived Brexit fears came back to bite it. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.1% to its highest since June last year. Japan`s Nikkei dipped 0.3% and off a 2019 top.


Shanghai blue chips added 0.3%, after hitting an eight-month peak on Tuesday, as Beijing trimmed another short-term interest rate. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 were little changed, while EUROSTOXX 50 futures fell 0.1%. 


Upbeat economic news had helped the S&P 500 reach a record for the fourth straight session, building on its 27% gain this year. The Dow ended Tuesday up 0.19%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.07% and the Nasdaq 0.11%. 


A run of better data recently has helped calm fears of recession while the "phase one" Sino-U.S. deal on trade seems to have lifted some of the uncertainty on the global outlook.


The sea change was clear in BofA Global Research`s latest survey of fund managers with recession concerns diving 33 percentage points to a net 68% of investors saying a recession is now unlikely in 2020.


Global growth expectations jumped 22 percentage points, marking the biggest 2-month rise on record. As a result, funds` allocation to global equities climbed 10 percentage points to a net 31% overweight, the highest level in a year.


(With Agency Inputs)