Indian shares rose on Wednesday, recovering from earlier falls of as much as 1.2 per cent, as battered lenders such as State Bank of India recovered on value-buying, while sentiment was also bolstered after European markets rallied.

Oil, seen these days as a barometer of broader market sentiment, steadied in early European trading.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 189.9 points or 0.82 per cent at 23,381.87 and the 50-share NSE index ended up by 60.2 points or 0.85 per cent at 7,108.45.

Earlier, the Sensex dipped below the 23,000-mark by falling 271.13 points or 1.16 per cent, at 22,920.84, following other Asian markets amid signs that Iran will not join in a deal with top oil producers to freeze output at January levels.

Domestic sentiment was earlier hit after the rupee approached a record low.

Similalry, the 50-share Nifty also declined by 87.60 points or 1.24 per cent to 6,960.65.

Among BSE sectoral indices, healthcare index gained the most by 1.57 per cent, followed by oil & gas 1.4 per cent, infrastructure 1.13 per cent, and auto 1.03 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 2.34 per cent and banking 0.23 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Adani Ports (+5.84%), Dr Reddy's (+3.52%), Sun Pharma (+3.29%), Tata Motors (+3.02%) and Tata Steel (+2.65%), while the major losers were ICICI Bank (-3.1%), Coal India (-1.71%), Lupin (-1.4%), Cipla (-0.83%) and Axis Bank (-0.49%).

Overseas investors sold $164.83 million of shares on February 15, taking this year's outflow to $2.3 billion.

"Markets are dependent on foreign flows and FIIs (foreign institutional investors) have been pulling out all through, not because we are looking bad, its more of an emerging market issue," said independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga.

Markets now await minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting due later in the day.

A report by SMC Global said: "Asian shares were taking a breather, looking to consolidate two sessions of solid gains as risk appetites finally showed some resilience to the latest sell-off in oil prices. US stocks rallied to close at intra-day highs Tuesday, providing a rare day of the recent trend of trading in lockstep with oil prices.Core machine orders in Japan gained 4.2 per cent on month in December. That missed forecasts for an increase of 4.7 per cent following the 14.4 per cent decline in November. On a yearly basis, core machine orders skidded 3.6 per cent versus expectations for a fall of 2.8 per cent following the 1.2 per cent gain in the previous month. For the fourth quarter of 2015, core machine orders gained 4.3 per cent on quarter and 2.1 per cent on year following the 10.0 per cent quarterly decline and the 0.9 per cent yearly fall in Q3."

Global markets

European shares resumed their recovery on Wednesday, boosted by a rise in the shares of French bank Credit Agricole and miner Glencore.

Asian markets slipped into the negative terrain after an oil output freeze by Saudi Arabia and Russia disappointed investors.

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