Sensex touched a new closing high of 21,338 as it gained 87 points on buying interest in select stocks. The benchmark index opened flat over the previous closing level of 21252 and touched a high of 21378 and low of 21168.

Index heavy weights Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC gained. The turnover on BSE was down marginally at Rs 1,887 crore against Rs 1,888 crore recorded on Tuesday.

In NSE, Nifty was up 25 points at 6,339.

Dipak Acharya, Fund Manager Equity at Baroda Pioneer AMC said the macro variables are turning better and the December quarter earnings of companies are likely to reinforce that corporate earnings are slowly improving.

“So while we believe that the economy is not out of woods, the worst may be behind us. Valuations of Indian equities remain attractive,” he said.

Metal and mining stocks gained for the second day in a row after China's central bank on Tuesday said it provided emergency funding to support commercial banks meet the demand for cash ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Major gainers include JP Infratech (5%), Century Tex (4%), Torrent Power (4%), CESC (3%), Bajaj Finserv (3%), Sun Pharma (3%), Aditya Birla Nuv (3%) and Ashok Leyland (3%).

Losers were Mphasis (-5%), Mahindra & Mah Fin (-5%), Dabur India (-4%), Berger Paints (-3%) and JP Power (-3%).

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