Cement stocks led the rally in trade with ACC, Ambuja and Ultratech Cement seeing a sharp uptick.

The Sensex closed the day with gains of 164 points, while the Nifty rallied 64 points in trade. Apart from cement stocks, the shares of HCL Tech and heavyweights ITC and ICICI Bank also gained in trade.

Shree Renuka Sugars fell six per cent after the company announced that Wilmar would buy a stake in the company. The price dropped closer to the Wilmar stake and hence the stock was down.

Telecom stocks were under pressure after Idea Cellular was downgraded by a foreign brokerage firm. Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel all ended lower in trade.

Top Nifty losers in trade today were DLF, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Hero Motor Corp and Cipla. Jewellery shares were in the limelight and shares like PC Jewellers ended higher on reports that the government may consider reduction on import duty of gold.

Banking shares also saw some buying interest in trade with notable gainers being from the private space including the likes of IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Yes bank.

Mid cap stocks also saw some buying interest with notable gainers being Mcleod Russell, Jubilant Foodworks and Sun TV Networks.

Meanwhile, Asian markets ended the day higher with notable gainers being the Seoul Composite, Taiwan Weighted and the Japanese Nikkei.

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