The Sensex and the Nifty ended the day higher with the Nifty holding the 6700 levels to end the day at 6715 points, up 16 points. The Sensex ended the day higher by 63 points.

Today's higher closing was led by a bounce in heavyweights from the oil and gas sector including ONGC and Reliance. FMCG major ITC also lent support to the markets closing 1 per cent higher.

Nifty losers in trade today were Hindalco, Hero Motor Corp and Bharti Airtel. Tech stocks also saw some selling pressure with HCL Tech, Infosys and TCS leading declines on the bourses due to the rupee which was trading with gains.

Mid cap stocks saw some buying interest with Power Finance, IFCI and Bharat Forge among the winners.

PSU banking stocks saw some selling pressure with Canara Bank dropping almost 4 per cent in trade. Other notable losers were Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of India.

United Bank rallied sharply by as much as 5 per cent after the company reported a sharp turn around in profits.

Shares in Housing major, HDFC dropped one per cent, despite the company's results coming in line with expectations.

FMCG stocks saw some declines with Marico and Dabur India among the losers.

Realty stocks also saw some deep cuts with Oberoi Realty and D B Realty being among the losers. Meanwhile, stocks in Europe were trading lower led by losses in the German DAX, French CAC and the UK's FTSE.

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