Domestic stocks staged a strong recovery from Friday's intraday lows on September 11, recouping much of their opening losses as global crude oil prices retreated following their recent surge, triggering buying in oil-sensitive stocks. Technically, the latest sell-off had also pushed the frontline indices into oversold territory, prompting value buying at lower levels.
The Nifty 50 rebounded 0.72% from its intraday low but still ended the session 0.34% lower at 23,398. Similarly, the Sensex recovered sharply from its lows but closed 0.16% lower at 74,78.
The strong intraday recovery also made domestic equities relative outperformers, as major Asian markets closed with steep losses. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 1.9% to 64,011.34, while South Korea's Kospi lost 1.8% to 6,909.91.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.7% to 24,789.07, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.2% to 3,888.11, and Taiwan's Taiex slipped 1.6%.
Auto stocks provided much-needed support to the market recovery, with the Nifty Auto index rebounding nearly 1% from its intraday lows as crude oil prices declined. Meanwhile, selective buying in financial stocks helped the Nifty Bank index recover 1.61% from its intraday lows to end the session higher.