India, April 3 -- Staging a spirited recovery, stock markets pared early losses to close higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Sensex rising by 185 points and the broader Nifty settling above 22,700 on strong value buying in IT and banking shares and a sharp rebound in the rupee.

Rebounding more than 2,000 points from the day's low, the 30-share BSE Sensex finally settled higher by 185.23 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 73,319.55. The index opened lower and tanked further by 1,588 points to hit a day's low of 71,545.81 in the first half of the session. Strong value buying in IT bellwethers like HCL Tech and TCS, and banking giants HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, helped the barometer recover from sharp losses, hitting a high of 73,568.54 in the p...