The BSE Sensex rebounded more than 3 percent on Friday after a four-day slide, as euro zone plans to shore up struggling banks eased concerns about Europe's debt crisis and helped revive risk appetite.
Software services bellwether Infosys Ltd rose as much as 5.2 per cent, while lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank bounced back as investors scooped up beaten-down stocks.
At 10:58 a.m., the main 30-share BSE index was up 3.01 per cent at 16,267,22, with all but one of its components rising, as trading resumed after a local holiday when global markets had climbed.
"There seems to be a short-term reversal," said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities in New Delhi. "Some positive developments are happening in Europe and looks like things are moving in the right direction."
The Bank of England launched a second round of quantitative easing to defend Britain's faltering economy on Thursday and the European Central Bank threw another lifeline to commercial banks by renewing offers to lend them one-year funding in two operations, this month and in December.
Dewan said the Indian market was oversold and trading would be volatile with the quarterly earnings parade set to kick off next week.
State Bank rose as much as 3.5 per cent and ICICI Bank gained 6.7 per cent. The two stocks had slumped 7.7 and 7.1 per cent respectively over the previous two sessions on fears of weakening asset quality after Moody's cut its standalone rating of State Bank.
The bank sector index firmed 4.39 per cent.
On Wednesday, State Bank tried to allay fears of any significant impact on its borrowing costs due to the downgrade and said it expected to receive an injection of up to $2 billion from the Indian government this fiscal year.
The BSE index had lost about 4 per cent in the first three days of the week, primarily spooked by the State Bank downgrade on Tuesday. The market was shut on Thursday for a public holiday.
On the year, the index is down more than a fifth to be among one of the world's worst-performing equity markets, with foreign portfolio investors turning net sellers after record inflows of $29.3 billion last year.
Asian markets were trading higher after the European Central Bank announced aggressive liquidity measures and the European Union said it would present a plan for a coordinated recapitalisation of banks by member states.
The 50-share NSE index gained 3.10 per cent to 4,898.50. In the broader market, there were more than six gainers for every loser on total volume of about 173 million shares.
Investors also picked up metal producers that had taken a beating this year.
Hindalco and Sterlite Industries rose 4.2 per cent and 7.2 per cent, respectively. The two are the worst-performing stocks this year among the main index's components.
Steel producers Tata Steel rose 4 per cent, while Jindal Steel & Power surged 7.4 per cent.
The MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rallied 3.13 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.93 per cent.
Stocks On The Move
* New Delhi Television rose 3.1 per cent to Rs 51.10, after the company and partner Kasturi & Sons decided to sell their respective stakes in Metro Nation Chennai Television Ltd for Rs 150 million.
* Real estate firm Sobha Developers Ltd climbed 4.3 per cent to Rs 212 after the company said it was confident of achieving estimated annual new sales of Rs 15 billion.
