03:30 pm Market closing: After a day of volatility, the market finally ended with a bang. The Sensex closed up 135.68 points or 0.5 percent at 27780.83, and the Nifty was up 50.10 points or 0.6 percent at 8368.50. About 1717 shares advanced, 986 shares declined, and 162 shares were unchanged.
Tata Steel, Coal India, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Bharti Airtel were big gainers on the Sensex. ITC gained 2 percent. Among the losers are TCS, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp and GAIL.
03:10 pm Oil imports: The government has asked refiners that owe billions of dollars to Iran for oil imports to build up dollar and euro balances to avoid downward pressure on the rupee if western powers and Tehran reach a final nuclear deal.
Local refiners owe about USD 6.5 billion to Iran, equivalent to 55 percent of their oil bill, after a route to pay for Iranian oil through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped in February 2013 by western sanctions.
