Sensex breaks 4-day fall on value buying

Infosys was the top performer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.80 per cent, after the IT major announced the appointment of Salil Parekh as MD and CEO.

Trading was volatile throughout the session ahead of RBI's monetary policy review and Gujarat elections later this week.

The central bank is scheduled to announce the fifth bimonthly policy of the current fiscal on December 6.

Fresh spell of buying by domestic investors in recently beaten down stocks helped the key indices to trade in the positive zone after four days of losses, brokers said.

After a strong start at 32,968.02, the Sensex reclaimed the 33,000-mark to hit a high of 33,008.62 points but profit booking at higher levels capped the gains. It finally closed at 32,869.72, up 36.78 points, or 0.11 per cent.

The gauge had tanked 891.50 points in the previous four sessions as upbeat second quarter GDP numbers failed to dispel concerns over a widening fiscal deficit.

The 50-share NSE Nifty inched up 5.95 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 10,127.75 points. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,179.20 and 10,095.70.

"Market was sidewise and finally settled with minor gains as investors remained watchful ahead of two days RBI monetary policy starting from tomorrow. Rebound in IT stocks due to favourable developments in heavyweights gained investors’ confidence and capped the fall in the market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Major gainers were HUL 1.37 per cent, HDFC 1.25 per cent and Tata Motors 1.06 per cent.

Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Dr Reddy's, Axis Bank, L&T, Adani Ports, SBI, Wipro, Hero MotoCorp and TCS also advanced by up to 1.03 per cent.

Shares of Biocon surged 15 per cent after the biotechnology major said it has received regulatory approval to market a biosimilar of cancer drug Herceptin in the US.

Globally, in the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.22 per cent while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.49 per cent.

Shanghai Composite Index too shed 0.24 per cent.

Among European markets, Frankfurt was up 1.06 per cent while Paris rose 0.85 per cent in their morning trade.

London's FTSE too was up 0.79 per cent.

Sectorally, the BSE IT index gained the most by rising 1.37 per cent, followed by teck (1.08 per cent), metal (0.50 per cent) and healthcare (up 0.32 per cent), oil & gas (0.31 per cent) and consumer durables (0.30 per cent).

Realty, power, banking and auto sectoral indices ended in the red.

The broader markets remained under pressure, with the small-cap index falling by 0.52 per cent and mid-cap 0.09 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 306.11 crore last Friday, as per provisional data.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also bought equities worth a net Rs 176.19 crore.