Reversing two days of losses, the benchmark BSE Sensex today edged up by 33 points to 27,564.66 on gains in banking stocks amid prevailing rate cut hopes even as the auto and tech shares plunged on poor earning numbers.
Trading in the negative zone for most part of the day, the index recovered on fag-end buying ahead of the May derivatives expiry.
"With the continued pressure of derivative contracts expiry, markets are in the consolidation mode. It has been a dismal quarter of earnings so far for the India Inc, adding to the spoiled sentiment," said Gaurav Jain, Director of Hem Securities.
After opening lower at 27,447.40 points, the Sensex continued to slide and touched the day's low of 27,363.72 points due to sustained selling.
However, the Sensex bounced back following emergence of value-buying particularly in banking stocks in the last half-an-hour of trading on hopes of rate cut by RBI.
The barometer settled higher by 33.25 points or 0.12 per cent at 27,564.66.
The gauge had lost 426.09 points in the previous two sessions on lower-than-expected earnings from bluechip firms.
The wider 50-issue NSE Nifty, however, closed down by 4.75 points or 0.06 per cent at 8,334.60.
On Sensex, among banking stocks, Axis Bank rose by 2.26 per cent, HDFC Bank by 1.32 per cent and ICICI Bank by 1.1 per cent. State-run SBI gained 1.23 per cent.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 114.81 crore yesterday and domestic institutional investors bought worth Rs 123.85 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
"With just a day before near month derivative contracts expire, rollovers of futures are seen to be quite low, suggesting that traders are less likely to continue with the same bets in the June contracts too," said Anand James, Co Head Technical Research Desk of Geojit BNP Paribas.
In the overseas market, Asian stocks ended mixed as key indices in China, Japan and Taiwan firmed up by 0.25 per cent to 0.63 per cent, while Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea fell by 0.60 to 1.68 per cent.
