The Sensex and Nifty ended higher to post a third straight session of gains on Thursday on sustained buying by domestic investors ahead of key macroeconomic data to be released later in the day.

Besides, a positive start of the earnings season and a firm trend in other Asian bourses also fuelled the domestic market sentiment.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 106.75 points or 0.39 per cent at 27,247.16 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 26.55 points or 0.32 per cent at 8,407.20.

Among BSE sectoral indices, power index gained the most by 3.19 per cent, followed by IT 1.92 per cent, TECk 1.55 per cent and capital goods 1.51 per cent. On the other hand, FMCG index was down 0.93 per cent, healthcare 0.73 per cent, auto 0.19 per cent and realty 0.06 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were NTPC (+5.69%), PowerGrid (+4.14%), Infosys (+3.2%), L&T (+2.57%) and Wipro (+1.52%), while the major losers were Lupin (-2.03%), HUL (-1.76%), ITC (-1.29%), Coal India (-1.28%) and Dr Reddy's (-1.19%).

IT stocks led by Infosys gained ahead of earnings and on hopes US President-elect Donald Trump may not proceed with stringent visa rules.

Domestic gains were however limited as pharma stocks fell on Trump's comment that drug makers were “getting away with murder” in what they charge the government for medicines, and promised that would change.

However, he did not make any announcements on potentially tougher visa rules for software services exporters, a concern for the sector ever since his election.

A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks opened mixed, Japanese equities dropped as the yen strengthened despite strong overnight cues from the US The European and US markets were up, as Wall Street overcame its brief wobble to end Wednesday firmer. The Dow added 0.5 per cent, while the Nasdaq gained 0.21 per cent following US President-elect Donald Trump’s first post-election press conference, which was devoid of any policy details. Japan had a current account surplus of 1.415 trillion yen in November, the Ministry of Finance said - up 28.0 per cent on year.The headline figure was shy of expectations for a surplus of 1.460 trillion yen and down from 1.719 trillion yen in October. The trade balance showed surplus of 313.4 billion yen - exceeding forecasts for 254.4 billion yen and down from 587.6 billion yen in the previous month. Exports were down 0.8 per cent on year to 5.890 trillion yen, while imports tumbled 10.7 per cent to 5.577 trillion yen."

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