The benchmark index was back in the green after slipping in the noon trade. Asian stock markets were mixed as economic surveys from the US, Japan and China showed that recovery is going to be a long slog.
In Japan, the central bank's "tankan" survey reflected a slight uptick in gloomy corporate sentiment. But the results were worse than expected and also showed that companies plan to cut back on capital investment, highlighting the challenges the world's second-biggest economy faces as it climbs out of its steepest recession ever.
Chinese manufacturing expanded slightly in June, two surveys showed, a sign that the world's third-largest economy is slowly rebounding from the collapse in global trade, even though few new jobs were created.
An overnight drop on Wall Street, where stocks were dragged down by an unexpected drop in US consumer confidence, also weighed on sentiment.
Indian markets were choppy as investors were edgy ahead of the budget on Monday. The Sensex was recently trading at 14,648, up 154 points, after recovering from its day’s low of 14,355. But the gains were capped due on selling pressure at higher levels.
Among the sectors, the BSE realty index was up over 3 per cent, with DLF up over 4 per cent. IT, banking and capital goods sectors also edged up. Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, and Bharti Airtel were up over 2 per cent.
Hindalco was down over 4 per cent. The other draggers included ACC and ONGC.