New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS): After the strong volatility in the previous few sessions, India's key benchmark equity indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- settled marginally in the green on Tuesday.

Accordingly, Sensex settled at 57,808.58 points, up 187.39 points or 0.33 per cent from the previous close. Nifty settled at 17,266.75, up 53.15 points or 0.31 points.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty metal, pharma and PSU bank rose the most on Tuesday, while Nifty realty, media, and IT declined.

On the specific stocks, Tata Steel, Cipla, Reliance Industries, Divi's Labs, Bajaj Finserv were the top gainers, while ONGC, Power Grid Corporation of India, SBI Life, Tata Consumers, and Indian Oil Corporation the top losers.

According to S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities: "As policy makers face one of the fastest pace of price increases in the developed markets, global stock markets are facing a challenge in pricing the likely actions by central bankers.

"Back home, the Nifty opened extremely weak and drifted closer to 17K levels on geo-political worries and soaring oil prices with passive emerging market funds booking profits. As bond yields price ahead of the RBI policy, supply of paper ahead of a mega primary market offering kept investors circumspect though indices managed to recover substantial lost ground to end in the green in afternoon trade."

Notably, indices slumped sharply recently on the back of sell-off by foreign investors coupled with fears that RBI may raise policy rates in its next Monetary Policy Meeting starting Tuesday.