Equity benchmarks rebounded in initial trade on Thursday after falling the previous day amid a firm trend in global markets, but later faced bouts of volatility.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 209.39 points to 60,866.84 in initial trade. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 59 points to 18,101.95.

However, later both the benchmarks turned choppy.

The Sensex quoted 34.37 points lower at 60,623.08, while the Nifty traded 5.20 points up at 18,048.15.

From the Sensex pack, NTPC, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, HCL Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and Asian Paints were the major winners.

Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the green.

Markets in the US had ended in the positive territory on Wednesday.

"The Fed minutes were distinctly hawkish with the message that "restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until the incoming data provided confidence that inflation was on a sustained downward path to 2 per cent".

"In spite of this hawkish minutes the US markets closed in the positive territory because the markets expect a soft landing for the US economy since the economy continues to be resilient," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark had slumped 636.75 points or 1.04 per cent to settle at 60,657.45 on Wednesday. The Nifty ended lower by 189.60 points or 1.04 per cent at 18,042.95.

International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.03 per cent to USD 78.64 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 2,620.89 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

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