Onion prices, however, continued to rule high with 79.78 per cent increase in September.
Slowdown in industrial production notwithstanding, a marginal increase in inflation raised the clamour for another round of rate cut by the Reserve Bank on April 4 to boost economic activity.
Sensex and the Nifty reached an intra-day low of 19,318 levels and 5,845 mark, respectively.
In a moved aimed at bringing inflation under control, the government cut customs duty on 11 product categories, including portland cement, capital goods, project imports and raw materials, late Monday night.
Inter-ministerial programmes have run into obstacles as rules written by bureaucrats hamper rather than promote investments.
The 30-share Sensex ended higher by 30 points.
Market sentiment suffered a jolt after other Asian markets closed with widespread losses and European markets dropped in early trade
According to the RBI proposal, companies can now take the ECB route for raising 10-year funds which is capped at five years now.
Discarding a weak economic growth number, markets today rose for the fourth straight day with BSE Sensex gaining 169 points to close at a new 19-month high on hopes of imminent rate cut to revive the slowing economy.
The mining sector grew by 4.3 per cent in June as against a dip of 4.6 per a year ago.
Apex exporters' body FIEO has sought reduction in import duty on capital goods to 5 per cent from the present 15 per cent to help Indian manufacturers compete in the global market.
Among Sensex constituents, HCL Tech suffered the most by diving 2.26 per cent, followed by HDFC shedding 2.10 per cent.
Growth in overall factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production.
Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production had contracted 2 per cent in June last year, as per the data released by the Central Statistical Organisation.
Markets extended gains for the fourth consecutive day tracking gains in banks, capital goods and oil and gas majors.
Meanwhile, IIP for June was revised upwards to a decline of 1.78 per cent from a provisional 2.2 per cent dip in production. It contracted by 2.8 per cent in May this year.
The Sensex swung over 660 points both ways on alternate bouts of selling and buying before closing the day higher by 97.39 points, or 0.28 per cent.
BSE Realty index surged by almost 2%.
It is difficult to reconcile the GDP numbers with other economic indicators.
Telecom, metal and healthcare came as dampeners.
The sales growth rate has been a 10-quarter low, dragged by slowdown in the key sectors -- capital goods, construction, infrastructure, non ferrous metals, steel and telecom -- that had contributed to India Inc's growth story in the past.
'The revival of household savings and investment is the litmus test of whether we are on the road to recovery,' says Nitin Desai.
The Hinduja Group, Mukesh Ambani, Murugappa, and the Adani groups were the other gainers in the Modi regime, while Naveen Jindal and Sun Pharma groups saw the most erosion in their m-cap in the last five years, reports Krishna Kant.
All goods and services have been put in slabs of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%
Market breadth continued to remain positive with 1,730 gainers and 1,116 losers on the BSE.
The industrial production growth rate has dipped to 0.1 per cent in July, as against 3.7 per cent in the same month last year.
The Nikkei Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) -- an indicator of manufacturing activity -- declined from 52.5 in April to a three-month low of 51.6 in May.
Markets ended flat amid a volatile trading session on Monday weighed down by banks and capital goods shares as investors turned cautious ahead of RBI's second quarter monetray policy review on Tuesday.
Experts feel select companies in banking, automobiles, financial services & real estate will gain from lower interest rates
Benchmark share indices ended lower, amid a volatile trading session, weighed by weakness among Metal, Banks and Capital Goods shares. Weak performance of the global markets also dampened the sentiments among local investors.
T C A Anant, the Union government's chief statistician, thinks global rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) does not fully understand our economy's structure, comprising a large unorganised sector as well.
This comes as a shocker for the Indian economy which is going through turbulent times at the moment.
Key macroeconomic indicators suggest softening industrial growth.
Sun Pharma stole the show in the Sensex pack, spurting 3.91 per cent, followed by M&M at 2.87 per cent.
NSE Nifty, after shuttling between 10,809.60 and 10,725.90, finished 30.95 points, or 0.29 per cent lower at 10,741.10.
The NSE Nifty ended 89.40 points, or 0.83 per cent, lower at 10,710.45.
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