By IANS,
Mumbai : In a volatile day of trading, Indian equities markets recovered somewhat late afternoon Monday to end marginally down with a key index losing just 1 percent from its previous close last Friday after going below the psychologically important 9,000 mark mid-afternoon.
The 30-share benchmark sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) finished at 9,291.01, down 94.41 points or 1.01 percent from its previous close last Friday at 9,385.42 points.
The Sensex opened slightly higher at 9,396.93 but immediately began to slide to hit an intra-day low of 8,956.68 before inching up to its current value.
The broader-based 50 share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a similar trend and finished at 2799.55, down 10.8 points or 0.38 percent from its previous close at 2810.35 points.
The BSE midcap index closed at 3,133.36, down 82.72 points or 2.57 percent from its previous close at 3,216.08 points.
The BSE smallcap index finished at 3,661.39, down 103.66 points or 2.75 percent from its previous close at 3,765.05 points.
There was all round selling pressure for most part of the day but then markets recovered during the last two hours of trading due to short covering, analysts said.
US markets had closed with losses Friday with the key index of the New York Stock Exchange down 4.6 percent and the Nasdaq down 5.0 percent.
Asian markets showed a mixed trend with Nikkei, the key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange ending with a 0.71 percent gain while Hang Seng, the key index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange finished with a marginal loss of 0.10 percent.
Thus global cues continued to be weak leading to losses in the Indian equities markets as well, analysts said.
Of the 13 sectoral indices, only two – telecommunication, media and entertainment and technology and information technology – ended in green.
Realty, bank, consumer durables and metal stocks were the biggest losers.
Wipro, up 4.59 percent was the top gainer, followed by ACC Ltd, up 4.29 percent, Tata Motors, up 2.56 percent and Maruti Suzuki, up 2.45 percent.
HDFC Bank, down 7.71 percent was the top loser, followed by Reliance Infrastructure, down 6.23 percent, Tata Steel, down 4.01 percent and DLF Ltd, down 3.92 percent.
As many as 1,800 stocks or 70.89 percent declined, 679 stocks or 26.74 percent advanced and 60 or 2.36 percent remained unchanged.
The market sentiment is negative and there is still too much nervousness around, analysts said.