Markets end weak despite sharp recovery; oil, IT, bank drag

02 December 2008

The markets ended lower despite showing sharp recovery in last one hour of trade. The benchmark indices had opened with sharp gap down on account of weak trend across the globe, as the National Bureau of Economic Research or NBER confirmed that the US has been in recession since December 2007, and manufacturing in the US contracted the most since 1982. Both indices had remained extremely under pressure. However, the recovery started after 2 pm, as the beaten down stocks like FMCG, cement, select telecom, power, capital goods and realty stocks witnessed buying interest. Some recovery in Euroepan indices also helped our markets a bit.

But a conntinous sell-off in oil, technology, banking, auto and metal stocks kept markets under pressure throughout the session and did not give a chance to turn in green. The Nifty also closed back above 2650 level.

The 30-share BSE Sensex shut shop at 8,739.24, down 100.63 points or 1.14% from previous close. It recovered nearly 272 points from an intraday low of 8,467.43. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 25.10 points or 0.94%, to settle at 2657.80, after showing recovery of 87.1 points from day's low of 2570.70.

BSE Midcap Index lost 41.14 points or 1.45%, to close at 2,805.33 and Small Cap Index was down 45.32 points or 1.37% at 3,252.41.

Volumes remained low today as well; total traded turnover stood at Rs 43,672.73 crore. This includes Rs 7,602.67 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 33,471.48 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 2,598.58 crore from BSE cash segment.

Top losers were M&M, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, L&T, Sterlite Industries, Tata Motors, HCL Tech and Suzlon Energy. However, Reliance Infrastructure, Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC, ITC, Idea Cellular, Unitech and Zee Entertainment were gainers.