After tumbling over 602 points in early trade spooked by Greece concerns that may trigger capital outflows, the benchmark BSE Sensex recovered over 435 points, powered by gains in HUL, ITC, L&T, ICICI Bank and Dr Reddy’s, but still closed down over 166 points.
Also, the broader NSE Nifty after dipping below the 8,200-point mark, recovered most of losses to close 62.70 points or 0.75 per cent down at 8,318.40. Intra-day, it shuttled between 8,195.65 and 8,329.45.
Weakness in the rupee against dollar that depreciated by 26 paise to Rs 63.90 (intra-day) too prompted investors to trim positions, traders said.
Sentiments dampened largely on global sell-off on fears that Greece may default on a debt repayment and likely crash out of the euro zone, they said.
Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi that the economic crisis in Greece may trigger capital outflows from India and the government is consulting Reserve Bank to deal with the situation, also influenced sentiment.
Falling for the second day in a row, the 30-share Sensex nosedived to hit day’s low of 27,209.19 points in early trade on across-the-board selling by investors as well as funds.
However, mid-way buying helped recovering almost two-third of lost grounds to close the the day 166.69 points or 0.60 per cent down at 27,645.15.
Of 30-Sensex shares, 23, led by Hindalco, SBI, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, BHEL, Wipro, Vedanta, Cipla and M&M ended lower.
“Participants upheld the cautious stance on Greece crisis,” said Manoj Choraria, a Delhi-based NSE broker.
Sectorwise, the BSE realty suffered the most by falling 2.23 per cent, followed by IT by 1.70 per cent.
Broader markets also saw selling pressure with the BSE small-cap index falling by 1.49 per cent, while mid-cap index dropping 1.37 per cent.
In the overseas market, Asian stocks ended down as key indices in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan fell between 2.39 to 2.88 per cent, indices in China and Singapore also fell.
European stocks were trading lower in their early trade as investors fear Greece could be heading for a euro zone exit. Key indices in France, Frankfurt and the UK were also down.
PTI