The Sensex hit the 21,000 points in trade today and was up by 101 points led by a sharp rally in Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank.

India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel reported a drop in net profits to Rs 512 crores due to forex losses. However, the stock was trading higher as the company's profitability without the forex losses was better then expected.

Banking stocks which had rallied substantially in trade on Tuesday following the RBI policy continued to grind higher. Among the notable gainers in trade today was ICICI Bank which was up almost 2 per cent, while other gainers were Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank and Yes Bank.

IDBI Bank, however, dropped marginally ahead of its results. Software stocks were trading mixed with Infosys losing ground, while TCS and HCL were among the gainers.

Top Nifty gainers in trade were Bharat Heavy Electricals, Lupin, Dr Reddy's and ITC.

Nifty stocks that lost ground in trade today were Larsen and Toubro, Mahindra and Mahindra, Wipro and Sesa Sterlite.

Mid Cap stocks also rallied in trade with Ashok Leyland, Crompton Graves and Reliance Communications among the gainers.

Shares of LIC housing were trading flat ahead of its results today.

Asian stocks were trading marginally higher on hopes that the Federal Reserve would maintain a status quo on its bond buying programme.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee was trading lower by 24 points at 61.55 to the dollar.

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