U.S. stocks ended strong yesterday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting a record intra-day high ahead of Fed meeting outcome.

Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Indian equities traded strong for the day with the help of bluechips as global equities traded strong ahead of the Fed meet. US economic data continues to support the positive global cues as optimistic and upbeat economic reports has improved investor confidence. Investors are eagerly waiting for possible clues about interest rates from the meeting of the world's top central bank."

Twenty scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while others finished lower. Major gainers were Dr Reddy's Lab (2.52 per cent), Infosys (2.29 per cent), Tata Power (2.21 per cent), BHEL (2.18 per cent), Tata Steel (1.78 per cent), Hero Motocorp (1.74 per cent), Tata Motors (1.45 per cent), Wipro (1.41 per cent) and NTPC (0.91 per cent).

However, Cipla fell by 1.60 per cent, Coal India 1.26 per cent, Sun Pharma 0.70 per cent and HDFC Bank 0.44 per cent.

Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, IT rose by 1.52 per cent, followed by Power 1.35 per cent, Teck 1.26 per cent, Auto 1.02 per cent and Capital Goods 0.81 per cent.

Total market breadth turned positive as 1,519 stocks closed in the green, 1,498 finished in the red while 101 ruled steady.