Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded sharply by 1 per cent on Wednesday after sliding for the past two sessions, propelled by bargain hunting in metal, commodity and telecom stocks.

Trading through a patchy track in the opening session, the 30-share BSE Sensex gradually gained ground and jumped 689.76 points, or 0.98 per cent, to settle at 71,060.31. The benchmark moved between an intra-day high of 71,149.61 and a low of 70,001.60.

The broader NSE Nifty also closed 215.15 points or 1.01 per cent higher at 21,453.95.

Among the Sensex firms, major winners included Tata Steel, rising 3.77 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, which gained 3.62 per cent.

IndusInd Bank and PowerGrid closed with a gain of 3.60 and 3.34 per cent, respectively. Other gainers were Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserve and Bharti Airtel, among others.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and TCS were the only laggards, sliding up to 2.94 per cent.

A total of 25 stocks of the 30-share benchmark settled in green, while 43 constituents of the NSE Nifty witnessed gains.

"The market rebounded from yesterday's sell-off taking cues from global peers. The sentiment was reinforced by the PBOC's 0.5 per cent cut in reserve ratio to boost growth and financial liquidity. However, overall sentiment is muted as concerns persist on FIIs selling due to premium valuations in India and below expectation Q3 earnings so far," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

The BSE Midcap rose 1.71 per cent to settle at 37,884.28, while the smallcap index rose 1.72 per cent to 44,124.36.

Among sectoral indices, telecommunications and metal rose by 3.57 per cent and 3.21 per cent, respectively. While commodities rose 2.06 per cent, oil & gas went up 2.17 per cent and energy increased by 1.95 per cent. The banking sector index was the only laggard, falling marginally by 0.18 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 0.80 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained sharply by 3.56 per cent. China's Shanghai Composite also ended 1.80 per cent higher.

European markets were higher on Wednesday, with Germany's DAX and CAC 40 of France gaining 1.00 per cent and 0.58 per cent. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.29 per cent.

In the US markets, the Dow closed 0.25 per cent lower on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 settled 0.29 per cent higher and tech-heavy Nasdaq closed the session 0.43 per cent higher.

Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were trading higher by 0.58 per cent to USD 80.01 per barrel on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Sensex fell 1,053.10 points or 1.47 per cent to settle at 70,370.55. Nifty also declined 330.15 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 21,241.65.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Tuesday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,115.39 crore, according to exchange data.

As per sources, market regulator Sebi does not expect a large number of foreign portfolio investors to be impacted by the new beneficial ownership disclosure norms.

Norms are set to come into effect from February 1, and against this backdrop, the equity market has witnessed significant volatility, with the benchmark Sensex crashing over 1,000 points on Tuesday.

In the past four trading days alone, FPIs have sold shares worth over Rs 27,000 crore after pumping huge money that had also pushed the market indices to record highs.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.