Mumbai: Snapping its two-day fall, the BSE Sensex on Wednesday recovered by 33 points to close at 27,564.66 points on late buying in banking, FMCG and oil stocks after recent falls and hopes of rate cut by the Reserve Bank.
Covering-up of short positions in select stocks in view of May month expiry in the derivatives segment tomorrow and hopes of rate cut by RBI helped the Sensex to close in positive zone, brokers said.
The wider 50-issue Nifty of NSE, however, closed down by 4.75 points, or 0.06 percent at 8,334.60 points.
Cautioned prevailed following disappointing earnings by Tata Motors and Tech Mahindra and overnight sell-off in the US markets on fears about Greek fiscal woes and speculation that the Federal will raise interest rates this year, brokers said.
Market participants are expecting RBI to cut key rates in its June 2 policy meeting as inflation worries has eased, they added.
After opening lower at 27,447.40 points, the BSE Sensex continued to slide and touched the day's low of 27,363.72 points due to sustained selling.
However, the Sensex bounced back following emergence of value buying particularly in banking stocks in the last half-an-hour of trading on hopes of rate cut by RBI. The barometer settled higher by 33.25 points, or 0.12 percent, at 27,564.66.
The gauge had lost 426.09 points in the previous two sessions on lower-than-expected earnings from bluechip firms.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 114.81 crore yesterday, as per provisional the data.
BHEL topped gainers' list by rising 3.34 percent largely on covering-up of short positions and value-buying, followed by ONGC which rose by 2.70 percent.
Among banking stocks, Axis Bank rose by 2.26 percent, HDFC Bank by 1.32 percent and ICICI Bank by 1.1 percent. State-run SBI gained 1.23 percent.
Snapping its two-day fall after lacklustre results, ITC was up by 1.10 percent.
Oil major ONGC gained 2.70 percent while Coal India was up by 2.11 percent. Coal India, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Tata Power and L&T also posted gains.
Among laggards, Tata Motors suffered the most by plunging 5.12 points after company reported 56.2 percent decline in net profit for the January-March quarter.
M&M, Infosys, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Vedanta Ltd, Tata Steel, Wipro, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto also fell up to 3.05 percent.
Shares of Tech Mahindra, country's fifth-largest software exporter, crashed 14.24 percent to Rs 549.35 after the company posted a 23.15 percent dip in net profit for the March quarter.
In the 30-Sensex constituents, 17 ended higher, while 13 remained in the negative terrain.
Sectorwise, the BSE PSU index gained the most by recovering 1.51 percent, followed by Banking 1.19 percent, Oil & Gas 0.97 percent, Consumer Durables 0.95 percent and Capital Goods 0.71 percent.
However, Auto index fell 2.11 percent, while IT index declined 1.88 percent.
