Mumbai, Sep 6 (IANS) A last hour spurt of value buying aided the key Indian equity indices to snap a six-day losing streak during a largely volatile trade session on Thursday.
According to market observers, a healthy pick-up in healthcare, oil and gas and banking stocks also lifted investors' sentiments.
Earlier in the day's trade, the downward spiral in the Indian rupee's value against the US dollar had subdued both the key indices. The Indian currency had breached the 72 per dollar mark for the first time.
Index-wise, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,536.90 points, higher by 59.95 points or 0.52 per cent from its previous close of 11,476.95 points.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 38,161.85 points, closed at 38,242.81 points, higher by 224.50 points or 0.59 per cent from the previous close of 38,018.31 points.
It touched an intra-day high of 38,320.96 points and a low of 37,912.50 points.
"Markets bounced back on Thursday... The recovery was led by buying in the last one hour of trade and seems to have come on the back of value buying by investors," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
"Broad market indices like the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices gained less, thereby underperforming the main indices. Market breadth was positive on the BSE/NSE.
"Major Asian markets have closed on a negative note barring the Jakarta index. European indices like DAX and CAC 40 are trading in the green."
Geojit Financial Services' Head of Research Vinod Nair said: "After six consecutive days of fall on account of global trade tensions and weakening currencies, market showed a recovery today helped by rally in index heavy weights."
"However, caution prevails in the market due to weakening rupee which touched a fresh low of 72 today against USD, high crude levels and escalating US-China trade tensions which may cause a slowdown in inflow to emerging markets. Pharma outperformed due to rupee depreciation."
On the currency front, the Indian rupee settled at a record closing low of 71.99 against the US dollar, weaker by 24 paise than its previous close of 71.75 per greenback.
Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 455 crore and domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 611.98 crore.
Sector-wise, only the S&P BSE healthcare index gained 347.81 points, followed by oil and gas index which rose 168.24 points and the banking index that edged-higher by 111.85 points.
In contrast, the S&P BSE consumer durables index declined by 26.60 points, the consumer discretionary goods and services index fell by 6.38 and Teck (technology, entertainment and media) index ended 6.05 points lower than its previous close.
The top gainers at the Sensex were Reliance Industries up 2.80 per cent at Rs 1,260.15; Power Grid up 2.21 per cent at Rs 199.20; Coal India, up 2.05 per cent at Rs 283.20; Sun Pharma, up 2 per cent at Rs 676.65; and Kotak Bank, up 1.76 per cent at Rs 1,260.35.
The majors losers were Yes Bank, down 1.42 per cent at Rs 339; Maruti Suzuki, down 1.33 per cent at Rs 8,772.30; ICICI Bank, down 0.45 per cent at Rs 328.45; Infosys down 0.25 per cent at Rs 727.95 per share and Asian Paints, down 0.20 per cent at 1,314.65.
