New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS): The FMCG and Pharma sectors outperformed, with investors adopting a defensive approach to navigate global challenges, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

However, persistent outflows of foreign funds and rising US bond yields are expected to keep the broader indices in bleak terrain, in the near-term, he said on Wednesday.

The market on Wednesday inched higher in the second half, driven by positive openings in European markets. Concerns about global interest rates and elevated oil prices are being balanced by several domestic factors, such as promising economic growth prospects and the potential for strong earnings, which validate the premium valuation, he added.

Most of the sectoral indexes were in green on Wednesday, with Nifty Pharma leading the way with gains of 1.19 per cent, says Vaibhav Vidwani, Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

Coal India, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Cipla and LTIMindtree were among the top gainer on the Nifty while, losers were Titan Company, Grasim Industries, Hero MotoCorp, SBI and BPCL.

Aditya Gaggar Director of Progressive Shares said Indian bourses have witnessed a complete reversal in Wednesday's trade as Nifty50 started the day on a tepid note and weakness in the banking counters put further pressure on the Index to breach its strong support of 19,600.

In the second half of the trading session, the turnaround was seen across the board which supported the Index to recover all its losses to end the day at 19,716.45 with gains of 51.75 points. On sector-wise performance, Pharma was the top gainer followed by PSU Banks and FMCG. Broader indices outperformed the Nifty50 as Midcap and Smallcap indices ended the session with gains of 0.75 per cent and 0.98 per cent respectively, he said.