Indian shares extended gains on Wednesday afternoon, rising for a fifth straight session, ahead of the outcome of the three-day Reserve Bank of India meeting tomorrow. Analysts expect the RBI to cute the repo rate by 25 basis points and change its monetary policy stance in the first meeting under the new RBI governor Shaktikanta Das.

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At 12.16 pm, the BSE Sensex traded 247 points higher at 36,864, while the Nifty 50 was holding above 11,000 mark, trading almost 80 points up at 11,014.

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HDFC, ITC, Bajaj Finance were among the major contributors to Sensex gains. The rally, however, remained lopsided and was driven largely by buying in select bluechips.

Tech Mahindra shares jumped more than 6 percent to a life-time high of Rs 800 intraday as the country's fifth largest software services exporter posted strong third quarter earnings, beating analyst expectations. TechM reported an almost 28 percent jump in net profit at Rs 1,203 crore, driven by automation measures on Tuesday.

Zee Entertainment shares also surged nearly 7 percent on value buying. The Essel group entertainment stock was the top gainer on the NSE.

The bearish trend in broader market indexes continued with the Nifty MidCap index down 0.21 percent. The BSE MidCap also fell 0.32 percent. Nifty Media was leading the 32 advancing sectors and rose 3.5 percent. IT and energy sectors also traded in green.

Nifty Realty dipped well over half a percent, leading the 11 falling sectors. BSE Consumer Durables, Telecom and Nifty Pharma were other major losers.

Apart from ZEEL and TechM, shares of Grasim, HPCL, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, NTPC and Bajaj Auto rose between 1 and 3 percent.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Vedanta, Dr Reddy's Labs, Adani Ports and Titan declined up to 2 percent.

Meanwhile, therupee traded nearly unchanged

, trading at 71.56 per US dollar. The home currency had closed at 71.56 against the greenback on Tuesday.

Asian markets lacked major triggers barring US President Donald Trump's State of the Union address ahead of another round of the US-China trade talks in Beijing next week.

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