New Delhi [India], September 20 (ANI): Indian stocks extended their gains from the final hour gains from the previous session to trade sharply higher on Tuesday morning.

At 9.31 am, Sensex traded at 59,777.29 points, up 636.06 points or 1.08 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,825.40 points, up 203.15 points or 1.15 per cent. Among the Nifty 50 companies, 49 advanced and 1 declined at the time of writing this report.

Investors seemed to have already discounted the possible rate hikes by major central banks, including the US Federal Reserve. Positive cues from the overnight US markets too lent support.

"The Indian market continues to show resilience despite global challenges. Major indices like Nifty Bank, autos, FMCG and cement are at record levels with only Nifty IT dragging the benchmark indexes," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"The real winners in this volatile market are investors who remained invested without much trading. This strategy may be continued in the near term. There is value emerging in IT for long-term investors," Vijayakumar added.

A two-day monetary policy meeting of the US central bank is scheduled to commence today.

Consumer inflation in the US declined marginally in August to 8.3 per cent from 8.5 per cent in July but is way above the 2 per cent goal. Several senior top bankers recently said that another interest rate hike is imminent.

Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby enabling the inflation rate to decline.

The US central bank is expected to raise the rates by another 50-75 basis points. Already it has increased rates by 150 basis points.

The US Federal Reserve will be single-mindedly focused on inflation until it is lowered closer to the 2 per cent target on a sustained basis, said global business intelligence solution firm SP Global Market Intelligence. It is expected that it will raise the rates by another 75 basis points to a range of 3 per cent to 3.25 per cent -- which would be the third consecutive increase of that magnitude.

US Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller recently gave a hint the decision at the monetary policy meeting will be "straightforward" and the central bank will continue to fight inflation aggressively.

Meanwhile, RBI too will seat for a monetary policy review later this month and further rate hikes are highly expected. Morgan Stanley expects a 50 basis points hike by the RBI.

As per schedule, the next three-day monetary policy meeting will be held during September 28-30.

"Going forward, many stock-specific adjustments will continue and provide substantial trading opportunities. Hence, traders are advised to have a stock-centric approach and stay abreast with global and domestic developments on a regular basis," Osho Krishan, Senior Analyst - Technical and Derivative Research at Angel One. (ANI)