Key indices rebound in late recovery

Mumbai: Market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty rebounded from the day's lowest levels to register their first gain after four sessions on Tuesday, helped by hectic buying mainly in power, metal and telecom stocks. After plunging over 700 points in early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex pared all losses to settle 198.44 points or 0.34 per cent higher at 58,664.33. Similarly, the NSE Nifty rose 86.80 points or 0.50 per cent to 17,503.35.

PowerGrid was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 4 per cent, followed by NTPC, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv. On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Infosys, Bajaj Auto and Maruti fell up to 2.59 per cent. Sectorally, BSE metal, power, utilities, realty, basic materials and telecom indices rose up to 3.48 per cent, while IT index ended in the red. Broader midcap and smallcap indices rose 1.81 per cent.

"Domestic equity market clawed its way out of the recent downslide boosted by metal, PSU bank and pharma stocks with mid and small caps outperforming the benchmark indices. US markets witnessed a late sell-off on Monday despite the re-nomination of Jerome Powell as the Fed chair.

Oil and gas indices remained under pressure amid reports of the US releasing its emergency oil reserves to keep the rising crude oil prices under control," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong and Seoul ended with losses, while Shanghai and Tokyo were positive. Stock exchanges in Europe were in the red in mid-session deals.