Sensex ends 54 pts lower; IIP trim losses

A fag-end recovery trimmed the day's losses on buying revival and the BSE (^BSESN : 16632.01 -222.92) benchmark Sensex closed with a moderate loss of over 54 points.

The Sensex, which plunged to touch the day's lowest level of 14,701.05, rebounded to close with a loss of 54.43 points at 15,020.16 as industrial output data released this afternoon was better than expected.

The National Stock Exchange (^NSEI : 4941.75 -63.8) index Nifty fell by 13.85 points at 4,457.50, after touching the day's low of 4,359.40 points.

Initially, the market remained bearish on aggressive selling by funds on concerns that the weakest monsoon in seven years will slash farm output and spending.

However, investors and major players, judging the three days' constant fall was overdone, preferred to purchase fundamentally strong shares at lower levels.

A better opening in European stock markets this afternoon and release of Indian industrial output data rising much higher than expected to 7.8 per cent in June revived trading sentiment.

Marketmen said the market tumbled at the outset following reports that as many as 161 of 626 districts have been declared drought-prone.

The market mostly remained down at the outset because of weak Asian cues and sustained pullout by foreign investors.

Among Asian indices, the Shanghai Composite ended down 4.66 per cent, Hang Seng 3.03 per cent, Nikkei 1.42 per cent and Strait Times 1.00 per cent. The European markets were better in their early trade this afternoon.

Foreign institutional investors pulled out Rs 1,800.30 crore in four days till August 10, as per the SEBI data.

While stocks in IT, metal, oil and gas, bank, capital goods, power and FMCG performed badly, realty, healthcare, auto, consumer durables and teck gained and saved the market from a major fall.

The IT sector suffered the most, losing 1.78 per cent to 3,959.09, followed by metals, which lost 1.63 per cent to 12,105.09 as Sterlite Industries fell by 1.76 per cent to Rs 623.80. Tata Steel (TATASTL.BO : 544.9 +1.45), the biggest producer of the alloy, lost 4.20 per cent to Rs 443.70.

A measure of six metals traded on the London Metals Exchange, comprising copper, aluminum, lead, tin, zinc and nickel, fell 2 per cent.

Among the market savers, realty gained the most, by 2.15 per cent to 3,772.59, followed by healthcare, which fell 1.31 per cent to 3,856.25.