Stocks marked their highest close in more than three months on Wednesday, driven by value-buying in beaten-down stocks, while the adoption of a select committee report on a key national tax bill in parliament also helped.

The broader market also gained with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining up to 1.3 per cent.

The Sensex finished 322.79 points or 1.15 per cent higher at 28,504.93 while the Nifty 50 moved up 104 points or 1.22 per cent to 8,633.50. This is their highest close since April 16.

The 30-share gauge had lost 281.17 points in the previous two consecutive sessions.

Wednesday’s rise was led by auto and bank stocks. Reliance Industries was the biggest index gainer, moving up 4.26 per cent to ₹1,050.45. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI all gained over a per cent

Reliance Industries was the top gainer, adding 4.26 per cent or Rs 43 to end at Rs 1,050.55.

M&M (3.3%), Sun Pharma (3.3%), Bajaj Auto (3.2%), HUL (2.6%) and HDFC (2.7%) were the other significant gainers on the Sensex.

However, Lupin (-3.2%), Bharti Airtel (-1.3%), TCS (-1.3%), nfosys (-0.90%) and Vedanta (-0.48%) were the major losers.

Foreign investors bought net equity worth ₹450 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutions were net sellers to the tune of ₹352 crore. Retail were net sellers of ₹25 crore of equity on the BSE.

Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 226.88 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

A report by SMC Investments and Advisors said: "Asian stocks opened mostly lower, pulling back after several consecutive sessions of gains, amid disappointing results from technology and industrial heavyweights in the US. Overnight, all three Wall Street indexes decreased and the US dollar declined against its peers as investors cashed out after a period of sharp gains in the currency.Foreign direct investment in China grew 0.7 percent in June from a year ago to $14.6 billion, the Commerce Ministry reported. In the first six months, FDI climbed 8.3 per cent from last year to $68.4 billion. However, investment in manufacturing dropped 8.4 per cent. On Monday, the Xinhua news agency quoted Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen as saying that FDI is forecast to grow around 4 per cent to $125 billion this year."

Global markets

Disappointment over US corporate earnings, most notably at Apple Inc, the world's largest company, pushed stocks lower on Wednesday and investors towards the shelter of bonds.

Retrenchment and caution dominated trading in other assets, with the dollar slipping a little further from its recent highs and commodities such as gold and oil resuming their downturn.

Stocks will look to corporate earnings on both sides of the Atlantic for direction. Meanwhile, the Greek parliament will vote on reforms it must undertake for talks on a multi-billion euro bailout to start this week, which will help determine broader sentiment in Europe.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares fell 0.5 per cent in early trade to 1,588 points. Germany's DAX fell 0.6 per cent to 11,534 points and France's CAC 40 was down 0.5 per cent at 5,079 points.

Britain's FTSE 100, which is more exposed to the mining and energy sectors, was down 0.7 per cent. British investors are also awaiting the latest Bank of England policy minutes, which may show a more hawkish tilt towards raising rates.

Earlier in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1 per cent, its biggest decline in two weeks.

Japan's Nikkei stock index ended down 1.2 per cent, snapping its six-day rising streak and pulling away from Tuesday's nearly four-week closing high as the Apple news reverberated on related tech shares.

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