The benchmark indices came back in the later part of the day after reeling under selling pressure through most of the morning session.Banking was clearly the flavour of the day; the interest-rate sensitive sector reversed initial losses after the latest government data showed moderation in food inflation.
The Sensex regained the 19k mark to end at 19046, higher by 68 points and the Nifty ended at 5711, up 20 points.
The midcap and smallcap ndices ended virtually unchanged at 7176 and 8905 respectively.
It was a fairly volatile day of trade, with the BSE Sensex swinging in a range of almost 300 points between a low of 18,794 and a high of 19,100.
The indices were kowtowing to the weak global cues throughout the morning session before a sudden buying frenzy in banking stocks, post the food inflation data, pulled the Sensex more than 200 points from the day's lows.
On the global front, raft of data from China dragged Shanghai Composite lower as investors gauged the impact of recent round of tightening by the government and that it may not be enough.
China's fourth quarter gross domestic product expanded faster-than-expected at 9.8% from 9.6% a year earlier. The Shanghai Composite dipped 2.9% at 2,678.
Among the other Asian peers, Hang Seng and Nikkei were down more than a percent each.
European markets also had a soft opening, with the FTSE delining 1%, while the CAC 40 and DAX falling in the region of half a percent each. Wall Street had edged lower in overnight trades, with the Dow shedding 10 points and Nasdaq losing 32 points.
Meanwhile,
food inflation moderated for the second straight week in January, tracking lower fruit and vegetable prices.
The food price index rose 15.52% and the fuel price index climbed 11.53% in the year to January 8, as against 16.91% and 11.53% in the weeak-ago period.
The decline in food inflation is mainly due to falling prices of pulses, wheat and potato.
The primary articles price index was up 17.03% in the latest week, compared with an annual rise of 17.58% a week earlier.
The food inflation had quickened to a one-year high late last month as unseasonal rains spoilt summer harvest of perishable vegetables such as onions, potatoes and tomatoes in key producing states.
The BSE bankex soared 1.7% at 12264. ICICI Bank zoomed by 2.6% at Rs 1050, HDFC Bank gained 1.9% at Rs 2118 and HDFC added 1.5% at Rs 662.
The IT space also continued their upmove after the profit-booking witnessed in the previous session; TCS jumped 1.5% at Rs 1211, Infosys gained 1.1% at Rs 3289 and Wipro added 0.6% at Rs 478.
On the losers side, ITC weakened by 2.1% at Rs 171, ITC shed 2% at Rs 1134 and Bajaj Auto lost 1.7% at Rs 1296. And index heavyweight RIL slid for the third consecutive day, shedding 1.2% at Rs 969.
The market breadth was negative. Out of 2944 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1294 advancing stocks as against 1350 declinhes.
