Sensex Closes Above 35,500, Nifty Settles At 10,685

The domestic stock markets closed in the green after a volatile session on Tuesday. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 159.06 points or 0.45 per cent higher at 35,513.14, while the broader Nifty50 barometer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) settled at 10,685.60, up 57 points or 0.54 per cent. The top gainers on the 50-scrip Nifty were Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Consulatncy Services (TCS), GAIL and Bharat Petroleum, which gained between 3.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent. Twenty-six out of 50 Nifty stocks finished with gains. However, shares in Yes Bank, Sun Pharmaceutical and Hero MotoCorp were the major drags on both the indices.

Gains in the bourses came after brokerage firm HSBC upgraded domestic equities to "neutral" from "underweight", saying valuations were more reasonable, investors' holdings were very low and strong earnings growth would continue next year.

Most of the sectoral indices on NSE closed higher. Infosys, TCS and Reliance Industries contributed most to the gains on 30-share Sensex. 

Nifty IT, the index of information technology shares on the NSE, gained 1.43 per cent.

Nifty PSU Bank - the index of state-run banks - also gained 1 per cent after the Centre late Monday announced that it would pump Rs 42,000 crore into the debt-laden banks by March.

Investors were cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and release of the gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday.

In the commodity market, crude oil prices traded at $60.24 per barrel.

In the currency market, the rupee rose to 70.74 per US dollar from its previous close of 70.87, reported news agency Indo-Asian News Service. 

On Monday, foreign portfolio investors and domestic institutional investors bought net equities worth Rs. 62.74 crore and Rs. 351.78 crore respectively, showed provisional NSE data.

(With agencies inputs)