Mumbai, Apr 16 (IANS): The Indian stock market settled on a positive note on Thursday after a largely volatile trade session.

After a choppy start to the session, the indices traded in the green starting after 11 a.m. The volatility can be gauged from the fact that the BSE Sensex traversed nearly 800 points between the intra-day low of 30,016.17 and the high of 30,800.20 points.

Uncertainty prevailed in the market ahead of the earning season for the quarter ended January-March and the financial year 2019-20.

The BSE Sensex closed at 30,602.61, higher by 222.80 points or 0.73 per cent from the previous close of 30,379.81. It had opened at 30,095.51 points. The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 8,992.80, higher by 67.50 points or 0.76 per cent.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said that the broad market indices like the BSE Midcap and Small Cap indices gained more, thereby outperforming the Sensex and Nifty.

Sectorally, the top gainers were the BSE Power, Capital Goods, Oil and Gas and Consumer Durable indices. The top losers were the BSE IT, Telecom and FMCG indices.

Major Asian markets have closed on a negative note, while European indices like the CAC and DAX have ended higher.

On the technical front, Jasani said that with the Nifty bouncing back, traders will need to watch if the Nifty can now hold above the immediate supports of 8,961-8,874, else a further correction is likely that could take the Nifty towards the 13-day simple moving average support at 8,554.

Rahul Sharma, Head of Technical Research at Equity 99 said that value-buying helped key indices to end higher in an extremely volatile trading session.

"While the market may have shown a positive sign, Indian investors are yet worried due to the current scenario of COVID-19. The positive sign for the Indian markets is that the country is not as affected as the global market, due to the current pandemic," Sharma said.

Among the Sensex stocks, the top gainers were NTPC (up 5.84 per cent), ICICI Bank (4.52 per cent) and Titan Company (3.87 per cent). On the other hand, the major losers were HCL Technologies (down 3.97 per cent), Tech Mahindra (3.75 per cent) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (3.66 per cent).