Ahead of US Fed meet, Sensex trends up 170 points

Continuing its winning streak for the fourth straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex surged over 170 points in early trade on Wednesday on sustained buying by investors in blue-chip stocks amid a firming trend in Asian
markets ahead of US Fed policy announcement. 

The 30-share barometer rose 170.86 points, or 0.64%, to 26,857.37. The gauge had gained 315.53 points in the past three straight sessions. 

Stocks of Hind Unilever, Tata Steel, Cipla, Infosys, Coal India, Dr Reddy's, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, TCS and Sun Pharma were trading in the positive zone with gains up to 2.31%. 

The NSE Nifty too advanced 45.25 points, or 0.56%, to trade at 8,092.5. 

Brokers said continued buying by investors following reports of above-normal progress in monsoon so far and narrowing of trade deficit to a three-month low in May lifted market sentiment. 

A firming trend in other Asian markets, tracking overnight gains in US markets ahead of an outcome of Federal Reserve policy meet, too supported the upside in the domestic markets here, they said. 

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.24% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.32% in early trade. 

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.64% higher in yesterday's trade.