Snapping three-session long losing spree, the benchmark indices rose on Tuesday as recent decliners such as IT stocks recovered, but overall sentiment was cautious ahead of the start of the earnings season and as globally geopolitical tensions grew in Middle East and the Korean Peninsula.
At 2:56 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,791, up 215 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,236, up 55 points.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap indices gained 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.
Infosys, the country's second-largest software services company, is due to report results on Thursday, unofficially kicking off the reporting season for major companies. The stock, which had shed nearly 7% this month as of Monday's close, gained 2% today.
The Nifty IT index was 0.64% higher, recovering from a loss of 1.4% in the previous session.
Financial stocks drove the gains on the NSE index, contributing about 17 index points. The Nifty Bank index had gained about 18.4% this year as of Monday's close.
SpiceJet rose as much as 2.9% after the country's capital markets regulator settled a case against chairman Ajay Singh over whether he violated disclosure rules when he bought shares from promoters in February 2015.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court set aside an order by the Appellate Tribunal For Electricity allowing compensatory tariff to Tata Power and Adani Power, sending their shares down 12.5% and 4.5%, respectively. Adani Ports also tanked over 5% and was the leading loser on Sensex.
Overseas, European and Asian markets declined as rising tensions in the Middle East and political uncertainty in Europe kept investors on edge, underpinning safe assets such as the yen, gold and treasuries.
The upcoming French presidential election and the heightened tensions in the Middle East following the US strikes on Syria have left investors nervous even as a raft of global data over recent months have pointed to a steadily improving global economy.