Equity benchmarks bounced back to end in the positive territory after trading lower for most part of the session on Thursday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 223.60 points or 0.37 per cent to settle at 61,133.88. During the day, it had declined 431.22 points or 0.70 per cent to 60,479.06.

The broader NSE Nifty gained 68.50 points or 0.38 per cent to end at 18,191.

From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were the major winners In contrast, Tata Motors, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv and Larsen & Toubro were the prominent laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

Equity exchanges in Europe were trading on a mixed note in mid-session deals. Markets in the US had ended in the red on Wednesday.

"The domestic markets continued to join global markets' weakness in the morning session but pared all of their losses in the late afternoon session amid volatility on December expiry day," said Mohit Nigam, Fund Manager & Head - PMS, Hem Securities.

International oil benchmark Brent crude declined 2.01 per cent to USD 81.59 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth a net Rs 872.59 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

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