Equities managed to end marginally higher in a choppy session amid stock specific buying in key heavyweights of auto, FMCG and IT counters as the benchmark Nifty gained 4.60 points to finish at 6,980.95.
After overnight massive drubbing, the uneventful choppy session saw the market opening above the key 7K-level on bouts of value buying and shortcovering despite fall in Asian peers.
Intense selling pressure led the market to witness sharp slide during afternoon amid investors caution ahead of key macro numbers of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data scheduled to be released later in the day.
Higher European opening amid recovery in crude oil following news of OPEC can curtail supply also Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's assurance on steps for banks NPA as well as appreciating rupee helped to improve sentiment in the midst of selling pressure, with key indices inched-up to end marginally higher.
Selling was seen in energy, metal, realty, PSU banks, infra, banks and pharma segments, the secondline shares of midcap and smallcap also witnessed intense profit-booking.
Elsewhere, Asian market fell over concerns over global growth, while European shares were trading higher, rebounding from previous session's steep losses amid rally in oil prices.
The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 7,023.65 and moved between 7,034.80 and 6,869.00 before closing at 6,980.95, showing a marginal rise of 4.60 points, or 0.07 per cent.
Major gainers were IDEA (8.40 per cent), Tata Motors (7.96 per cent), Bhartiartl (5.13 per cent), Cairn (4.07 per cent), Axis Bank (3.69 per cent), M&M (3.43 per cent), SunPharma (2.04 per cent), YesBank (1.96 per cent), HDFC (1.60 per cent) and TCS (1.30 per cent).
However, notable losers were BHEL (13.14 per cent), BPCL (5.5 per cent), ONGC (4.87 per cent), Adani Ports (4.71 per cent) and PNB (4.41 per cent).
Turnover in cash segment climbed to Rs 22,454.39 crore from Rs 18,956.39 crore yesterday. A total of 13,899.61 lakh shares changed hands in 107,32,312 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 84,42,990 crore.
