Sensex drops 132 pts as downslide continues for 6th day

Mumbai, Aug 9 (PTI) Continuing its meltdown for the sixth
day in a row, the BSE Sensex on Tuesday closed 132 points down
-recovering from an early loss of 560 points - as government
assurances failed to fully beat back the contagion impact of
debt crisis in the US and Europe.
In highly volatile trading, stock markets opened with
huge losses but staged a smart recovery, wiping off all the
losses by mid-day and moving into the positive territory.
However, they plunged back into the red.
After opening 472 points down this morning, the Sensex
widened its loss to 558 points within minutes. Thereafter, it
recovered more than 700 points from early morning lows and was
trading with a gain of over 100 points at one point.
However, it soon moved back into the red zone with over
300-point loss and after partial recovery closed 132.27 points
down at 16857.91 points -- lowest close since June 9, 2010.
Marketmen said that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's
assurance about strong fundamentals of Indian economy, and
Capital Market Joint Secretary Thomas Mathew's assertion that
FIIs were unlikely to resort to heavy selling, helped the
brief recovery but finally the negative global cues prevailed.
They said market would wait for the policy meeting of US
central bank, scheduled for later tonight, in hope of some
announcements aimed at boosting investor sentiments.
The global markets have been in a turmoil for past two
days, after the creditworthiness of the US was downgraded by
Standard and Poor's amid the American economy's mounting debt
worries. The debt problems in Europe have already been
hammering the market for about a week now.
During the intra-day trade, the Sensex dipped to 16,432
points - its lowest since June 1, 2010. During its brief
uptrend, it regained the 17,000-level to scale a high of
17,135.04 points.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index, Sensex, has
lost 1,454 points in the six straight trading sessions.
Another benchmark, National Stock Exchange's 50-scrip
Nifty, touched a low of 4,946.45 points, lowest since May 27,
2010, before closing 45.65 points down at 5,072.85 -- the
lowest close since June 9, 2010.
Tata Steel, Tata Motors, TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Coal
India were among biggest losers, while stocks like RIL, ICICI
Bank and Hindalco also lost substantially.
However, stocks like M&M, DLF, ITC, HDFC, ITC, Maruti and
ONGC managed to record smart gains on a volatile day.
The overall market breadth was still very negative with
nearly two-third of all listed stocks recording losses.
Oscillating between alternate bouts of rise and fall, the
Sensex traversed a path of more than 2,000 points, leaving the
traders and investors in a tizzy.
Experts said the brief recovery was mostly due to
positive openings in European markets, which later pared their
gains and the trend got reflected on the Indian bourses.
The overnight meltdown in the US and the subsequent fall
in Asia this morning added to the woes of Indian bourses.
"The US Fed has a crucial meeting tonight with a
possibility of announcing some measures to sooth investor’s
confidence. The outcome of the meeting is likely to affect the
short term sentiments of the world markets including India,"
Shanu Goel, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio said.