The Sensex regained the 20,000 level after six weeks on emergence of buying in fundamentally strong stocks available at existing attractive levels amid firm global cues.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 80.30 points or 0.4 per cent at 20,038.77 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 21.15 points or 0.35 per cent at 6,030.15.
The Sensex uptrend was led by realty index 1.97 per cent, followed by FMCG 1.16 per cent, capital goods 1.06 per cent and consumer durables 0.93 per cent. On the other hand, power and IT indices lost investors' support and were down 0.78 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
Among 30-share Sensex, Sterlite, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, M&M and TCS were the top five gainers, while the top five losers were Coal India, Tata Steel, NTPC, Infosys and Tata Power.
Rahul Bhandawat of Equentis Capital said: “US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will deliver authentication on monetary policy on 17th and 18th of July. Several Fed members believed that a reduction in the recent bond buying programme would start soon. Earlier, Bernanke said the aggressive bond buying programme (stimulus) would be continued to achieve sustainable growth for the world's largest economy US on 10th July and continuation may increase FII inflows in India and China.
China’s finance minister guided economic growth near seven per cent for the year which is lower than the projected target of 7.5 per cent.”
European and Asian shares were up as the Chinese economy expanded in line with analysts' forecasts.
Stoxx 50 was up 4.96 points or 0.19 per cent at 2,679.83, FTSE 100 rose 22.64 points or 0.35 per cent to 6,567.58 and DAX jumped 12.58 points or 0.15 per cent to 8,225.35.
Nikkei was up 33.67 points or 0.23 per cent at 14,506.20, Hang Seng was down 12.57 points or 0.06 per cent at 21,264.70 and S&P/ASX 200 was up 7.22 points or 0.15 per cent at 4,981.11.