Sensex ends 207 points down on Euro woes; bankex dives 2.5%

After a lacklustre trade since the opening, the BSE benchmark Sensex shed more than 200 points in the last hour of trade due to renewed concerns in the eurozone. The fall of 7% in SBI on account of worries over its assets quality too added severe pressure on the market. Banking, oil & gas, auto, capital goods and metal stocks caught in bears' hand.

Ritu Arora of Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company feels that global environment does pose a lot of challenges at this point in time and the center of worry is Europe. "The focus shifts from Greece to Italy and Italy is the second most leveraged economy at 120% of GDP in eurozone."

Fears that the debt crisis could spread to Italy even after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is ready to resign. European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down between 1% and 2%. Others like Athex Composite (Greece) tumbled 2% and FTSE MIB (Italy) plunged over 4%. The Dow Jones futures crashed 186 points.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 207.43 points or 1.18%, to close at 17,362.10 led by fall in 24 stocks. The 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 68.30 points or 1.29%, to end at 5,221.05.

Ritu Arora said global economy overhang would continue to dominate Indian market sentiment and also FII flows.

Dilip Bhat, Joint MD of Prabhudas Liladher feels that gradually over the next 6-9 months, the markets will come down and probably will make lower bottoms. "4500 looks very much on the cards."