Ignoring its early losses, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex, which commenced the day lower by 187 points, gained 58 points after India’s inflationary figures fell into the negative zone for the first time in over 30 years.

For the week ended June 6, 2009, the annual rate of inflation declined to -1.61% as against 0.13% during the previous week ended May 30, 2009 and 11.66% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

The Sensex, which lost nearly 435 points on Thursday, rebounded to trade higher by 57.84 points at 14,580.68.

In the meantime, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty surged 19.15 points to 4,375.30.

Marketmen stated that buying activity picked up shortly after announcement came that inflation hit minus 1.61% for the week ended June 6.

India may be the only nation now recording deflation, though the European region is coming near the zero rate of inflation owing to slowdown.

In the US markets, the majority of stocks declined on Wednesday, though health shares gained as the Senate made cautious steps on a health care overhaul plan.

Overall, the market was restrained by FedEx's weak profit estimation and offhand remarks regarding the financial system. Analysts look to shipping companies' business as a gauge of the economy's strength.

Financial stocks posted the biggest losses after Standard & Poor's slashed its ratings and revised viewpoints on big banking institutions.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.49, or 0.1 percent, to 8,497.18 after moving in and out of positive territory during the day. The broader S&P 500 index fell 1.26, or 0.1 percent, to 910.71, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.88, or 0.7 percent, to 1,808.06.