The Sensex and the Nifty ended the session marginally in the green on selective buying by funds and retail investors amid firm European cues.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended at 26,360.11, up 45.82 points and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed at 7,891.10, up 15.8 points.
Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index gained the most by 3.78 per cent, followed by banking 1.18 per cent, auto 0.79 per cent and capital goods 0.65 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 1.91 per cent, followed by metal 1.35 per cent and power 0.99 per cent.
Bajaj Auto, SBIN, HDFC Bank, M&M and Sun Pharma were the major Sensex gainers, while the major losers were NTPC, SSLT, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's and Hindalco.
According to stock brokers, buying by funds and retail investors at select counters amid a firm trend in European markets after US markets posted gains yesterday as Federal Reserve minutes suggested interest rates may be hiked sooner than expected, influenced the trading sentiment here.
Besides, reports of foreign funds remaining buyers in yesterday’s trade on the Indian bourses supported the recovery, they said.
A report by India Forex Advisors said: "With its investments in the US government bonds hitting a new high in June at $73 billion, India is now among the top 16 lenders to the United States. India was seen lending more than the developed countries such as Canada, Germany or France to US as RBI increased its exposure to the US treasuries by 19 per cent over the past year. As the US economy is seen reviving, it is expected that these investments may get higher yields given US increases the interest rates in 2015. Lower yields on other major sovereign papers like Japan and Euro area made US government paper more attractive.''
European stocks rose as bets that the Federal Reserve will continue to support the economy outweighed a slowdown in manufacturing growth in China and the euro zone.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.3 per cent to 336.34 at 9.09 a.m. in London. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 0.1 per cent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2 per cent.