After five consecutive sessions of fall, a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex), made gains during Wednesday's trade, rising by 215 points or 0.77 percent.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also made gains during the day's trade. It closed 51.95 points or 0.62 percent up at 8,429.70 points.
The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,756.68 points, closed at 27,890.13 points, up 214.09 points or 0.77 percent from the previous day's close at 27,676.04 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 27,947.26 points and a low of 27,385.48 points in the intra-day trade.
On Tuesday, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex had closed the day's trade 210 points or nearly one percent down as healthcare and automobile stocks took a hit.
In Monday's trade the index had closed 556 points or nearly 2 percent down, due to below-expected quarterly results coupled with negative global cues.
During trading on the latter three days of the past week, too, the Sensex closed in the negative territory and, in all, lost 599 points during Wednesday-Friday.
According to analysts following Wednesday's trade, the markets after opening on a positive note fell on the back of continued sell-offs. But later recovered and made gains during the second half.
"Market has found an intra-day support today in the set of negative flows coming from FIIs (foreign institutional investors) MAT (minimum alternate tax) issue and lack of performance trend from fourth quarter results," Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said.
"Added to this MET (metrological department) has provided a 35 percent probability for below normal monsoon, which is negative. A immediate clarification about MAT will provide support to the market," Nair added.
In Wednesday's trade, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, healthcare, banks, metals and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors.
However, stocks of information technology (IT), oil and gas and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) came under heavy selling pressure.
The BSE S&P capital goods index augmented by 318.14 points, followed by healthcare index which increased by 198.96 points, bank index was higher by 161.98 points, metals index rose by 45.87 points and FMCG index was up by 41.56 points.
However, the S&P BSE IT index plunged by 72.78 points, oil and gas index receded by 39.41 points and TECK index declined by 25.34 points.
The major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Hindustan Unilever, up 3.59 percent at Rs.905.10; Hero MotoCorp, up 3.40 percent at Rs.2,408.60; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 3.29 percent at Rs.1,744.90; Axis Bank, up 3.19 percent at Rs.540.35; and Dr.Reddy's Lab, up 3.04 percent at Rs.3,567.40.
The losers were: Wipro, down 6.01 percent at Rs.544; ONGC, down 2.61 percent at Rs.312.10; State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.71 percent at Rs.284.10; Maruti Suzuki, down 0.78 percent at Rs.3,462.10; and Tata Motors, down 0.72 percent at Rs.523.30.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei went up by 1.13 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed higher by 0.30 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index gained by 2.47 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was down by 0.69 percent and France's CAC 40 was lower by 0.73 percent. Germany's DAX Index fell by 1.25 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.
