Poor performance by banking and metal sector notwithstanding, short covering in beaten down stocks and good performance of the FMCG sector supported the benchmark indices on Wednesday to close in the green.
The BSE Sensex closed at 19,949 up 97.50 points or 0.49 per cent from its previous close and the NSE Nifty closed at 5,973 up 18.05 or 0.30 per cent from its previous close.
Alex Mathews, Head Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said: "The markets today opened with a positive note tracking the positive global cue. But in the second half Nifty pare all its early gain because of heavy selling in banking stocks. Finally heavy weight FMCG stocks like HUL and ITC lend support to the market in the afternoon session."
The major sectoral gainers for the day were FMCG and consumer durables which closed up around 3.24 per cent and 1.08 per cent respectively. The major losers were banking and metal sector which closed down around 2.22 per cent and 1.94 per cent respectively.
On the domestic policy front, the government approved foreign investments in 13 sectors. Telecommunication sector cap was increased to 100 per cent from 49 per cent. But the FDI in aviation sector was left unchanged at 49 per cent.
Volatility was up with the India Vix index closing at 19.36, up 1.95 per cent from its previous close.
On the NSE, HUL, Asian Paints, Ambuja Cements, NTPC and ITC were the top gainers while Tata Steel, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, M&M and Ranbaxy were the top losers.