Domestic shares rose on Thursday, aided by an uptick in consumer and pharma stocks, after the US Federal Reserve left rates unchanged as anticipated, but hinted at the possibility of more hikes later this year.

The blue-chip Nifty 50 index was up 0.18 per cent at 18,789.55 as of 10:29 a.m. IST, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex added 0.11 per cent to 63,300.21.

Both benchmarks were less than 1 per cent below their all-time highs. The mid-cap index hit a new record high on Thursday, while the small-cap shares rose as much as 0.43 per cent to post a fresh 52-week high.

“Not just the benchmarks, the small-caps and mid-caps have seen a tremendous run-up in recent weeks,” said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice-president for retail equities research at SMC Global Securities. “The markets are likely to take a pause, and a slight correction would only be healthy”.

Five of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined, with high-weightage IT index down over 0.5 per cent.

IT stocks, which are sensitive to interest rates in the US due to the significant share of revenue earned from the country, fell after the Fed kept rates unchanged for the first time in 17 months but signalled the need for borrowing costs to rise.

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks advanced 0.6 per cent.

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SMC Global’s Jain said a gradual improvement in rural demand and a fall in prices of key raw materials such as crude oil and soda ash have aided the rise of FMCG stocks.

The pharma index climbed over 1 per cent, with 11 of the 15 constituents logging gains.

Among individual stocks, shares of Fortis Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals rose over 3 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, after global brokerage JP Morgan initiated coverage on the stocks with “overweight” ratings.

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