Wall Street pulled off a dramatic late-session turnaround to close mixed Thursday after bargain hunters lured by weeks of massive declines came back to the stock market. The Dow Jones industrials, down more than 340 points in afternoon trading, ended the day with a loss of just 15.

The market appeared to be on an almost relentless downward spiral after problems at Countrywide Financial Corp. confirmed investors' fears that credit problems are spreading. Moreover, for much of the day, investors shrugged off the Federal Reserve's injection of $ 17 billion into the banking system, and appeared to be angling for a rate cut instead.

The market clawed back with a bounce in blue chip stocks, with a leadership role going to the downtrodden financial sector.

In spite of the big comeback, most of which came in the final hour of trading, Wall Street is still an uncertain place, having been pounded by weeks of losses including triple-digit slides in the Dow. All three of the market's big indexes reached levels Thursday where they were down 10 percent from their mid-July highs the definition of a stock market correction.

The Dow fell 15.69, or 0.12%, to 12,845.78.

The Standard & Poor's rose 4.56, or 0.32 percent, to 1,411.26, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 7.76, or 0.32 percent, to 2,451.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 17.29, or 2.30 percent, to 768.83.

The New York Fed which carries out the central bank's market operation -- announced an overnight repurchase agreement worth $ 12 billion. This was on top of a 14-day "repo" worth $ 5 billion announced before the market opened.

Central banks around the world have been supplying billions of funds to banks in the past week to make cash available for lending and keep interest rates from rising amid signs that credit was drying up. The Fed uses a repo to buy securities from dealers, who then deposit the money into commercial banks.

Countrywide fell $ 2.34, or 11%, to $ 18.95 after the mortgage lender borrowed $ 11.5 billion from a group of 40 banks to fund loans, in a move that shows just how deep the lending crisis has become. The company has been slammed as the credit crunch has driven a number of its smaller peers to bankruptcy.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which announced some of its hedge funds also have taken a massive hit, rose $ 4.95, or 3%, to $ 169.85.

Light, sweet crude fell $ 2.33 to $ 71 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, giving back Wednesday's gains as storms brewing in the Caribbean didn't appear to pose a threat to energy operations. Analysts believe worries about the economy, and stocks, have also struck fear among oil investors.



Indian ADR's were seen under selling pressure, Sterlite,VSNL and Patni Computers were the major losers

Indian ADR's were seen under selling pressure, Sterlite,VSNL and Patni Computers were the major losers, falling more than 5%.

In the technology pack, Patni Computers was down 5.28% at 18.85, Infosys Technologies was down by 1.89% at 45.80, Satyam Computers was down 4.16% at 23.99, Wipro was down 2.88% at 13.14.

In the non-tech pack, ICICI Bank was down 3.58 % at 38.03, HDFC Bank was down 2.59 % at 77.50, MTNL was down 4.51 % at 6.35, VSNL was down 6.2% at 17.70, Dr Reddy's Lab was down 0.06% at 15.50, Sterlite Industries was down 6.84% at 13.35 and Tata Motors also remained down 2 % at 16.18.