Buying during last hour of trading edged equity benchmarks towards positive territory in a subdued session on Thursday.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 55 points or 0.09 per cent at 58,305 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 16 points or 0.09 per cent to 17,369.
Sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty realty down by 0.7 per cent and private bank by 0.2 per cent. But Nifty FMCG, metal and IT rose marginally.
Among stocks, ONGC gained by 2.7 per cent to Rs 122.15 per share while Bharti Airtel rose by 2.6 per cent and Nestle India by 1.5 per cent.
The other which gained were Hindalco, Grasim, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, ITC, Adani Ports, Maruti Suzuki and NTPC.
However, SBI Life dipped by 3.7 per cent to close at Rs 1,174 per share. HDFC Life, Titan, UltraTech Cement and Bajaj Auto also traded with a negative bias.
Meanwhile, Asian shares dropped in line with a cautious global mood as investors worried about the combination of slowing global growth and the potential tapering of central bank stimulus.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.57 per cent on virus-led slowdown worries while South Korea's Kospi was off 1.53 per cent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 2.3 per cent on Beijing's gaming crackdown.
( With inputs from ANI )
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