India's Sensex recouped losses to end nearly 200 points higher on Thursday, led by gains in refiners such as Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, even as caution remained ahead of exit poll results for Gujarat election.
The official results will be known only on December 18 after counting is over, but the exit polls due later in the day would indicate the likely winner ahead of results.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.59 percent at 33,246 while the broader NSE Nifty added 0.58 percent to 10,252.
Among the top Sensex gainers, Cipla rose 2.2 percent, Dr. Reddy's gained 2.4 percent, ITC added 1.9 percent while Bharati Airtel was up 1.3 percent.
Oil refiners also advanced: Indian Oil rose 2.3 percent, Bharat Petroleum gained 1.8 percent while Hindustan Petroleum was up 3 percent.
Manpasand Beverages jumped 7 percent after the central bank raised overseas investment limit to 49 percent from 24 percent.
But Corporation Bank fell 2 percent after the central bank placed the lender under Prompt Corrective Action framework for high bad loans.
Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 2 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.
Asian shares edged higher after the U.S. Federal Reserve's comments tempered
prospects for future tightening. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.45 percent
Later in the day, the European Central Bank is expected to reveal details of plans to taper asset purchases. Comments on the outlook for 2018 will be the focus for investors as they weigh the impact of coming policy normalization on global asset prices.
