Snapping its two-day fall, the BSE Sensex today recovered by 33 points to close at 27,564.66 points on value-buying in banking, FMCG and oil stocks in the last half-an-hour of trading and hopes of rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India.

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 the positive zone, brokers said.

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, they said.

Market participants are expecting RBI to cut key rates in its June 2 policy meeting as inflation worries has eased, they added.

The Reserve Bank of India is likely to cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 7.25 per cent when it meets early next week and make a similar move before December.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended up by 33.25 points or 0.12 per cent at 27,564.66 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended down by 4.75 points or 0.06 per cent at 8,334.60.

Sectoral indices

Among BSE sectoral indices, PSU index was the star-performer and was up 1.51 per cent, followed by banking 1.19 per cent, oil & gas 0.97 per cent and cosumer durables 0.95 per cent. On the other hand, auto index fell the most by 2.11 per cent, followed by IT 1.88 per cent, TECk 1.42 per cent and infrastructure 0.59 per cent.

Gainers, losers

Top five Sensex gainers were BHEL 3.34%, ONGC 2.7%, Axis Bank 2.26%, Coal India 2.11% and Bharti Airtel 1.91%, while the major losers were Tata Motors 5.12%, M&M 2.8%, Infosys 2.00%, Sun Pharma 1.97% and GAIL 1.84%.

Early trade

Weak Asian cues saw the Nifty and the Sensex open in the red. the Nifty opened 36 points down at 8,303, while the Sensex opened 84 points down at 27,447.

A report by SMC Investments and Advisors said: "Asian stocks lost due to weak earnings report of most companies and weak growth. US stocks correct from multiyear high seen by investors as due correction from such levels. Consumer confidence in the US improved modestly in May after declining sharply in April, the Conference Board revealed in a report released. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 95.4 in May from a downwardly revised 94.3 in April. Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to dip to 95.0 from the 95.2 originally reported for the previous month."

Global markets

European shares rose on Wednesday after sharp declines in the previous session, with Italy's biggest insurer Generali gaining after committing to boost dividends and enzymes maker Novozymes advancing on a UBS upgrade.

European shares was up a third of one per cent at 1,607 points and Britain's FTSE was up 0.4 per cent at 6,975 points.

Germany's DAX was flat and France's CAC was up 0.1 per cent.

Asian shares took their cue from Wall Street's weakness on Tuesday, and the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8 per cent. Shares in Australia dropped 0.8 per cent, South Korea fell 1.7 per cent and Hong Kong eased 0.6 per cent.

But Tokyo's Nikkei, supported by the yen's fall to an 8-year low this week, bucked the trend and rose 0.2 per cent.

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