Here's how the markets closed today

Indian stocks posted a surprise rally on Wednesday despite a sharp sell-off on Wednesday morning as traders squared up short positions in the derivatives space and investors bought into some beaten down blue chips. Realty, Banking and Infrastructure futures were in heavy demand.

The Nifty closed 34 points higher at 7,845 points after dipping to as low as 7,743 in initial trades. Cairn, Vedanta, Lupin, Kotak Bank and BPCL were the top five gainers on the index while NMDC, Bosch, Power Grid, Tata Motors and Idea Cellular ended lower. The Advance-Decline Ratio stood at 30/20 on the Nifty where Indiabulls Housing, Motherson Sumi and Yes Bank were the top traded stocks on the exchange.

The broader market showed modest gains, recovering from negative territory towards the latter part of the day. The CNX 100, CNX 200 and the CNX 500 Indices rose more than 0.3 percent each. Gains on the CNX Mid Cap and the CNX Small Cap indices exceeded 0.4 percent.

The day belonged to the banking sector.

The Bank Nifty led the sectoral space higher with gains of 1.3 percent followed by the CNX PSU Bank index and the CNX Finance Index. Smart gains were also visible on the CNX Pharma and CNX Realty space.

Stocks were equally upbeat on the Bombay Stock Exchange where the Sensex rose 171 points, or 0.7 percent, to 25,823 points. As a consequence, the Advance-Decline Ratio was 19/11 on the index where Lupin, HDFC Bank, ITC, Maruti and Infosys were strong gainers. On the losing side were Tata Motors, BHEL and Bharti Airtel.

Maruti, Larsen and Axis Bank were the top traded stocks on the Sensex. The broader market was in fine shape with 1,528 stocks advancing compared with 1,146 that fell.

Activity was hectic in the futures and options space where the monthly expiry of contracts ends this week. JP Associates, IDBI and JP Power were the top gaining futures whereas Amtek Auto, Jindal Steel and PTC futures are on the losers' side. 96 futures advanced compared with 44 that fell.

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