Indian markets ended the session on Thursday with a gain of over 0.7 per cent on heavy buying by funds and retail investors tracking a firm trend in the European markets.

The Sensex was up 160.93 points (0.84 per cent) at 19,413.54 and the Nifty was up 44.7 points (0.77 per cent) at 5,863.30.

Among BSE sectoral indices, Realty index was up 1.68 per cent, followed by IT 1.66 per cent, Capital Goods 1.59 per cent and TECk 1.34 per cent. On the other hand, Consumer Durables index was down 0.57 per cent, followed by Metal 0.43 per cent and PSU 0.11 per cent.

“Investors will keep a close eye RBI monetary policy expected in mid-March. Overall, the medium-term outlook is of consolidation until productive signals from the Government and better corporate earnings for Q4 are obtained,” said Prashant Tapse of Mehta Equities.

A mixed trend prevailed in the Asian markets, as investors keenly awaited the outcome of the meetings of the central banks of Japan, Britain and the euro zone for signs of more policy stimulus, while solid US economic data underpinned the dollar.

The Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank will all announce their policy decisions later today, with investors expecting them to maintain or extend soft policy to support the economy.

Better-than-expected US private jobs data for February raised some expectations that the official non-farm payrolls report due to be released on Friday could be relatively solid.

But new orders for US factory goods fell in January on weak demand for transportation equipment, but the underlying strength in manufacturing remained intact.

In the Asian trade, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 35.81 points or 0.3 per cent at 11,968.08, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 6.40 points or 0.03 per cent at 22,771.44.

European stocks were unchanged as the Federal Reserve said the American economy grew and investors awaited the central bank meetings.

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