New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS): Domestic equities reversed their losses following a recovery in the global markets after Italian authorities clarified that the new tax could not breach 0.1 per cent of a lender's total assets, said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Nifty traded in negative territory for the most part of the session, but last-hour buying at lower levels helped the indices close near the day’s high with gains of 62 points at 19,633 levels.

The Sensex recovered 550 points from the day’s low to end 149 points or 0.23 per cent higher at 65,996.

Among sectors, metals, oil & gas, auto, and consumer durables were the top gainers. As expected, Indian equities are consolidating given the cautious global scenario and consistent selling by FIIs, Khemka said.

“Tomorrow, we expect the market to see some volatility as the RBI will announce its policy decision outcome on the weekly F&O expiry day. Further, RBI’s commentary would be largely tracked to understand their future course of action," he said.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said the domestic market started adopting a defensive stance as investors awaited crucial inflation data for both India and the US. The deflationary trend in China and downgrade of the US mid and small-sized banks affected the market sentiment.

However, a late recovery in the domestic market was supported by a positive uptick in the European market and hope of an optimistic RBI policy not impacting domestic economic growth, he said.