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Benchmark share indices staged a recovery in late trades helped by a rebound in technology and healthcare shares shrugging off the weakness in the global markets.
Provisionally, the 30-share Sensex ended up 30 points at 28,063 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 19 points at 8,401.
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(updated at 2.40 PM)_______________________________________________________
Benchmark indices are trading extremely volatile with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.
Investors have turned cautious ahead of the winter session of parliament which begins next week and RBI's policy review due on December 2.
At 1440 hrs, the Sensex was down 17 points at 28,015 and the Nifty slipped 1 point to trade at 8,382.
The broader markets are underperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices are down between 0.2-1%. The market breadth in BSE remains dismal with 1,740 shares declining and 1,124 shares advancing.
The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday cleared big-bang market reforms, including a move to replace the two-decade-old insider-trading rules with the new prohibition of insider trading (PIT) regulations, and amending the existing delisting regulations.
Further, the coal ministry has issued draft guidelines for reallocation of coal mines cancelled by the Supreme Court, marking the duties of the authorities appointed to operate the ordinance issued.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 71.80 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
RUPEE
The rupee is trading at 62.0875/0925 vs Wednesday's close of 61.96/97. The Indian unit had earlier fallen to as much as 62.22, the lowest level since Feb 20.
It shed losses as custodian banks sold dollars for their foreign fund clients, according to traders.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Japanese stocks were steady on Thursday as a further weakening of the yen boosted market sentiment, but gains were limited as investors took profits on such recent performers such as SoftBank Corp.
The Nikkei benchmark ended 0.1% higher at 17,300.86, close to a seven-year peak hit last week.
The broader Topix added 0.1% to close at 1,397.64, remaining near an eight-year peak hit on Wednesday. The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 also advanced 0.1% to 12,761.84.
Hong Kong shares posted a fourth day of losses on Thursday since the launch of the landmark Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connector scheme.
The Hang Seng Index unofficially closed down 0.1% at 23,349.64 points. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index ended flat at 10,379.43 points.
SECTORS & STOCKS IN FOCUS
BSE Consumer Durables index has surged by almost 2% followed by counters like Realty, Power Auto, Metal and Capital Goods, all slumping between 1-2%. However, defensive sectors like pharma and IT are trading higher by nearly 1% each.
The main losers on the Sensex are BHEL, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and M&M.
On the gaining side, Cipla is the top Sensex gainer, up nearly 3% after the company agreed to market pediatric vaccines made by Serum Institute of India in Europe, in a move that marks India's fourth-largest drugmaker's entry into the vaccines space.
Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) is trading higher by 1% at Rs 295 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the stock turned ex-stock split today. The country’s largest public sector lender had subdivided the face value of its equity shares to Re 1 from Rs 10.
IT shares like TCS, Infosys and Wipro have gained by nearly 1% on depreciating rupee.
Emerging as one of the most-liked stocks for foreign funds, Infosys has seen overseas investors raising their stake in the company to a nine and half-year high of nearly 42.67 percent during the quarter ended September 2014.
Among other shares, Alok Industries is up 5% and is quoting at Rs 12 on the BSE after the company decides to raise Rs 2,000 crore in the next two years by selling its Store 21, and well as land in Mumbai, Vapi and Silvassa.
Bafna Pharmaceuticals has gained around 8% to Rs 35.50 in BSE extending its gains from Wednesday on rating upgrade by CRISIL.
