Mumbai, 2 April

Stock markets pared early losses to close higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Sensex rising by 185 points and the broader Nifty settling above 22,700 on strong value buying in IT and banking shares and a sharp rebound in the rupee.

Rebounding more than 2,000 points from the day's low, the 30-share BSE Sensex finally settled higher by 185.23 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 73,319.55. The index opened lower and tanked further by 1,588 points to hit a day's low of 71,545.81 in the first half of the session.

The 50-share NSE Nifty closed above 22,700 at 22,713.10, up by 33.70 points, or 0.15 per cent. The index fell 496.85 points, or 2.19 per cent, in early trade before recovering to hit a high of 22,782.30.

A sharp rebound in the rupee after the Reserve Bank stepped in with a slew of measures to restrict banks from onshore forward markets also helped improve investor sentiment. The rupee rebounded by 188 paise to hit the 92 level against the US dollar briefly before settling over 150 paise higher.

Bargain hunting in IT stocks supported the recovery, with HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra ending nearly 3 per cent higher.

Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki India, Titan, Axis Bank, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ITC were the major gainers among Sensex shares.

On the other hand, Asian Paints, Eternal, Sun Pharmaceuticals, NTPC, Reliance Industries, PowerGrid, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Bajaj

Brent crude traded 7.28 per cent higher at USD 108.52 per barrel.

European markets were also trading lower. The US market ended significantly higher on 1 April.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 8,331.15 crore on 1 April, according to exchange data. Domestic institutional investors, however, bought stocks worth Rs 7,171.80 crore.