Shell shocked Sensex stages smart recovery

The key Indian stock indices managed to stage a smart 'V' shape recovery after reports that South Korea and North Korea had ended shelling on their tense western maritime border.

South Korea's YTN television said two people were injured, several houses were on fire and that shells were still falling on Yeonpyeong island.



"Houses and mountains are on fire and people are evacuating. You can't see very well because of plumes of smoke," YTN Television reported before the shelling ended after about an hour.

The BSE Sensex ended at 19,691, down 265 points from the previous close. It had earlier been as low as 19,342 after opening at the day's high of 19,841.

The NSE Nifty on the other hand lost 75 points to end at 5,934 after touching a day's low of 5,824. It had opened at 5,971 and touched a day's high of 5,973.

In terms of sectors, all the BSE sectoral indices ended in red with the Realty index down over 3%. PSU, Metal, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Banking, Power and FMCG indices were down 1-2%. Auto, Pharma, IT, Telecom and Capital Goods fared better but closed down nonetheless.

In the broader market, the BSE Small-Cap index and the BSE Mid-Cap index ended down by about 1.7% and 1%, respectively.

Market breadth was negative with 2,151 shares falling and 801 shares rising on the BSE.

Tata Power, SBI, Bharti Airtel, RCOM, Sterlite Inds, Hidalco, ACC, ONGC, ITC, Power Grid, SAIL, Suzlon, HDFC, IDFC, JP Associates, ACC, Ambuja Cements, Tata Steel, NTPC, ICICI Bank and Sesa Goa were among the major losers in the Sensex and Nifty.

Maruti Suzuki, HUL, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Auto were among the notable gainers in the Sensex and the Nifty.

Outside the two main indices, the key losers were Network18Media, DB Realty, Jai Corp, Kingfisher Airlines, Finolex Inds, HDIL, Kiri Dyes and Indiabulls Real Estate.

RCF, Mphasis, Jain Irrigation, National Fertilizers, Dish TV, ABG Shipyard, Gujarat NRE Coke, Patni Computers and Shoppers Stop were among the notable gainers in the broader market.