Stock markets bounce back after falling in early trade

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back and pared all of their losses in Thursday's mid-session trade as investors rushed to buy blue-chip IT stocks at lower levels.

Both the indices fell sharply in early trade, with the 30-share BSE Sensex declining 1,588.51 points to hit an intraday low of 71,545.81. The benchmark later pared all of its losses to trade at 73,255.52, up by 121.2 points, or 0.16 per cent.

Similarly, the 50-share NSE Nifty also tumbled 496.85 points, or 2.19 per cent, to touch an intraday low of 22,182.55. The index later staged a sharp recovery to trade at 22,706.65, up by 27.25 points, or 0.12 per cent.

Driven by intense buying, IT bellwethers such as HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, and Infosys rose up to 3 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki India, Trent, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and ITC were also among the gainers.

However, Eternal, Asian Paints, Sun Pharmaceuticals, NTPC, PowerGrid, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, IndiGo, UltraTech Cement and Adani Ports were among the laggards from the 30-share Sensex pack.

Among sectoral indices, Focussed IT and Information Technology emerged as the only gainers, rising up to 2 per cent.

Asian markets ended broadly lower, with South Korea's Kospi declining 4.47 per cent, Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 2.40 per cent, Shanghai's SSE Composite slipping 0.74 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 0.70 per cent.

European markets were also trading lower, with Germany's DAX declining 1.32 per cent, Paris' CAC 40 falling 0.80 per cent, while London's FTSE 100 traded flat.

The US market ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, traded 7.18 per cent higher to $108.42 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 8,331.15 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought stocks worth Rs 7,171.80 crore.

On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,186.77 points to settle at 73,134.32. The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 348 points to end at 22,679.40.