The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Tuesday led by gains in banking, financial services and index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

The Sensex rose as much as 305 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,400.

Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top movers in the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Asia's share markets were mixed and the dollar held steady on Tuesday, with investors awaiting U.S inflation data for more clues on when the Federal Reserve will taper stimulus.As of 9:25 am, the Sensex was up 217 points at 58,395 and Nifty 50 index advanced 63 points to 17,418.China's tightening grip on its technology companies and a widening liquidity crisis for the country's most indebted developer continued to keep investors on edge in early trade.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.13 per cent.Overnight, the world stock markets edged higher on Monday as gains on Wall Street and European indexes pushed aside - for now - fears over inflation, regulation and higher corporate taxes.Back home, buying was visible across the sectors as all the 15 sector gauges, barring the index of FMCG shares, were trading higher led by the Nifty Media index's over 6 per cent gain on the back of surge in Zee Entertainment and Dish TV.

Nifty Realty, Private Bank, PSU Bank, Pharma, IT, Financial Services, Auto and Bank indexes also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.83 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.64 per cent.Divi's Labs was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 2 per cent to Rs 5,170.

Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Britannia Industries, UPL, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra and ICICI Bank were also among the gainers.On the flipside, Coal India, Infosys, Grasim Industries, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, Power Grid and Bajaj Finance were among the losers.The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,903 shares were advancing while 692 were declining on the BSE.