BENGALURU: Indian shares snapped their worst losing streak in more than 10 months on Tuesday, helped by top domestic car maker Maruti Suzuki soaring on better-than-expected margins and Axis Bank on the back of strong earnings.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index closed 0.75% higher at 17,277.95, while the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.64% to 57,858.15, after five straight sessions of heavy losses driven by foreign investor selling.

The indexes fell as much as 1.9% earlier in the session, in line with global peers, driven by tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine and expectations of a more hawkish US Federal Reserve.

Maruti Suzuki posted a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly profit. But its shares surged 6.8% as a series of price hikes last year, aimed at mitigating rising material costs, helped improve margins.

Indian shares suffer worst week since late Nov, Reliance results in focus

Axis Bank ended 6.8% higher on its best day in nearly a year after the private-sector lender beat estimates for quarterly profit.

Oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company, settled 0.2% lower after falling as much as 3% earlier in the session.

The Nifty IT index, the biggest casualty of the recent sell-off, ended down 0.33%, marking its seventh straight session of losses.

Among individual stocks, India's No. 2 telecom operator Bharti Airtel climbed 3.2% after saying it would consider a preferential share issue. Local media reported that Alphabet Inc's Google may subscribe to the issue.

Nifty component Cipla closed up 1.5% ahead of its quarterly results.

Indian markets are closed on Wednesday for a holiday and will resume trading on Thursday.