Sensex ends 109 pts down, suffers highest loss in August in six months

Indian shares, barring occasional drift into positive territory, lingered in negative territory for almost the entire trading session before ending over 100 points lower amid renewed uncertainty in global markets. In August, the Sensex lost 6.51 percent its biggest monthly loss in past 45 months. Earlier in November 2011 the Sensex had a drop of 8.93 percent. Investors mostly exercised caution with a negative bias ahead of the April-June GDP numbers to be announced post market close. The median estimate from a Reuters poll of economists has put GDP annual growth at 7.4 percent in the quarter, just below 7.5 percent in January-March. [caption id=“attachment_2415114” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] “Growth momentum has improved in the last two years,” said a Reuters report quoting Kaushik Das, an economist with Deutsche Bank. “But the pace of recovery has been frustratingly slow.” Also, mixed Chinese markets coupled with a fall in key European indices failed to invoke confidence among local investors leading to the benchmark Sensex snapping a two session relief rally witnessed last week. Monday, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex ended the session at 26,283.09, down 109.29 points, or 0.4 percent from previous close. The index plunged deeper into the red in late trades to touch a low of 26,215.16, down 177 points, before coping some ground towards the fag end. In the last two sessions, the Sensex had jumped 678 points before reversing the trend. The broader 50-share CNX Nifty ended below the crucial 8,000-mark at 7,971.30, down 30.65 points, or 0.4 percent. Market breadth ended weak, with 1,490 stocks declining against 1,169 scrips advancing on BSE. In the Chinese market, Shanghai Composite ended 0.8 percent lower, while Hang Seng gained 0.3 percent higher even as Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.3 percent. Among European counterparts, Germany’s DAX and Paris’ CAC were down around 0.7 percent while London-based FTSE clocked nearly a percent gain in mid-day trade. With broader market exhibiting sharp volatility, investors back home cut back exposure to sectors such as capital goods, power, realty and automobile shares, which usually tend to falter during global markets sell-off in recent weeks. Among the laggards in Sensex pack, shares of BHEL dropped 3.4 percent to Rs 226.50, Bharti Airtel declined 2.1 percent to Rs 354.50, Hindalco also eased 2.1 percent to Rs 80.05, ICICI Bank shed 1.9 percent to Rs 278.10, Reliance Industries fell 1.6 percent at Rs 856.80 and ONGC was down 1.5 percent at Rs 239.80. However, gains in frontline pharmaceutical shares helped the market pare fall. Shares of Lupin rose 3.6 percent to Rs 1,928.85, Cipla gained 3.3 percent to Rs 681.50 and Dr Reddy’s was up 3.1 percent at Rs 4,310.15.