Sensex halts six-day losing run, ends higher by 31 pts

The benchmark BSE Sensex changed gears after six sessions of loss and rebounded over 31 points in a choppy trade today after value-buying in beaten-down blue-chips picked up, but fears over weak earnings weighed.
The gains marked a recovery from over a four-week low.
Mood brightened after core sector growth rose to a 4-month high of 3.2 per cent in September, brokers said.
The infrastructure growth rate in September was the highest since May when it was 4.4 per cent.
Moody's Investors Service yesterday said the economy would grow at 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal and improve marginally in the following year, which too spread cheer.

Moody's also upgraded its credit outlook on India's banking system to 'stable' from 'negative'. Faster economic growth, narrowing deficits and a slowing inflation are all making India an attractive investment destination.

The 30-share Sensex opened on a firm note at 26,660.71 and advanced further to hit a high of 26,732.24 on value-buying in recently beaten-down stocks.
But it felt the heat after profit-booking took hold and slipped into the negative zone briefly before settling at 26,590.59, up 31.44 points, or 0.12 per cent.
The gauge had lost 911.66 points in the previous six straight sessions on sustained foreign fund outflows amid muted Q2 earnings and a weak trend overseas.

The broad-based NSE Nifty also ended marginally higher by 9.90 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 8,060.70 after breaching the crucial 8,100-level.
Brokers said investors resumed buying in recently battered blue-chips that turned attractive after positive economic data, including the ones on core sector growth.
IT, power, infrastructure, PSU, oil & gas, metal, auto, healthcare and banking stocks all notched up gains while consumer durables, capital goods and realty fell.
NTPC surged the most rising 2.15 per cent, followed by M&M, ONGC and Hindalco.
Of the 30 Sensex components, 14 ended in the positive zone.
Sectorally, IT surged the most by rising 0.91 per cent, followed by oil and gas, PSU, power and healthcare.

In broader markets, small-cap and mid-cap indices ended with gains up to 0.39 per cent as investors widened their bets.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 272.67 crore yesterday, provisional numbers released by stock exchanges showed.
Indices in other Asian markets, including those in Hong Kong and Singapore were higher, while Shanghai Composite declined 0.25 per cent. Europe was higher in early trade.