Benchmark Sensex rallied 727 points and Nifty closed above the 20,000 mark on Wednesday driven by foreign fund inflows along with buying in market heavyweight HDFC Bank.

In a remarkable day for Indian equities, the combined market valuation of all listed companies on the BSE reached the $4-trillion milestone for the first time ever on Wednesday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 727.71 points or 1.10 per cent to settle at 66,901.91 after beginning the day on a positive note. During the day, it zoomed 772.08 points or 1.16 per cent to 66,946.28.

The Nifty climbed 206.90 points or 1.04 per cent to reclaim the 20,000- mark after a gap of over two months. It ended at 20,096.60.

Among the Sensex firms, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Bharti Airtel were the major gainers.

Nestle, Titan, Bajaj Finserv and UltraTech Cement were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower.

European markets were trading mostly with gains. The US markets ended marginally up on Tuesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 783.82 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.54 per cent to USD 82.12 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark climbed 204.16 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 66,174.20 on Tuesday. The Nifty gained 95 points or 0.48 per cent to 19,889.70.

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