Nifty ends below 10,850, Godfrey Phillips up by 5 pc

Equity indices witnessed an extremely choppy session on Wednesday but closed slightly higher after crude oil prices cooled globally.

Saudi Arabia said that more than half of the country's daily oil production has been recovered after being knocked out by a drone attack last weekend. Production capacity will be fully restored by the month-end.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 83 points higher at 36,564 while the Nifty 50 inched up by 23 points to 10,841.

At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty auto, media, pharma and private bank in the red. However, Nifty metal, realty, PSU bank and IT witnessed marginal gains.

Shares of cigarette companies were on a high after the government announced the banning of e-cigarettes. Godfrey Phillips gained by 5.5 per cent, Golden Tobacco by 4.7 per cent, VST Industries by 3.4 per cent, NTC Industries by 2.8 per cent and ITC by 1 per cent.

Metal stocks were up with Tata Steel gaining by 3.7 per cent, Vedanta by 3.1 per cent and JSW Steel by 2.1 per cent. The other prominent gainers were Bharat Petroleum Corporation, IndianOil Corporation, GAIL, State Bank of India, Bharti Infratel and Tech Mahindra.

Among the losers were Britannia, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Coal India, ONGC, Eicher Motors, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank.

Reports said that most investors remain in a pessimistic mood as stimulus packages from the government are not adding any resurgence in market sentiment.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed as investors awaited announcements on an expected interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve and the next round of US-China trade talks later this week.

Japan's Nikkei was down by 0.18 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.13 per cent. But the South Korean KOSPI Index moved up by 0.41 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index by 0.25 per cent.