The Hindu : Business : Sensex recovers most of early losses

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Wednesday, Dec 03, 2008
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Sensex recovers most of early losses

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday recovered most of its early losses but still closed the day lower by over 100 points amid a plunge in global markets following an U.S. panel officially acknowledging that the world’s biggest economy is in recession.

After dropping a hefty 325 points in early trade, which was attributed to heavy losses overnight in the U.S. markets, the BSE barometer regained losses to a great extent before settling at 8739.24, a drop of 100.63 points.

Marketmen said trading sentiment had taken a severe jolt after it became official that the U.S., the world’s largest economy is in recession.

A panel of economists of the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research has noted that the nation entered recession in December last year after 73 months of economic expansion since November 2001. The committee’s word is regarded as final on the question if America has entered into recession.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty also dropped 25.10 points at 2657.80.

Auto stocks were battered again with Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra and Mahindra reporting sharp drops in sales in November. The auto sector index closed lower by 3.04 per cent, the biggest loss among all sectoral indices.

Tata Motors dropped by 3.28 per cent to Rs. 128.40 on fall in sales and an international rating agency cutting its ratings to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’. The consumer durable index was the second worst performer followed by oil and gas and IT sector. However, fag-end buying pushed up sectors such as realty, FMCG and power to close with fresh gains.

Rupee recovers

After hitting a fresh low of 50.65 at one stage, the rupee recovered on Tuesday, helped by central bank intervention and dollar sales by private and foreign banks.

The rupee closed at 50.15/16 a dollar against 50.29 on Monday. — PTI

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