The domestic equity bourses recovered sharply from their intra-day lows on the back of better-than-expected industrial production data and a recovery in the European market. The benchmark equity indices, however, ended the day with marginal losses. The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed the day at 15,020.16 points, down by 54.43 points, or 0.36%, while the broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) settled at 4,457.50 points, losing 0.31%, or 13.85 points.
Earlier in the day, tracking heavy losses in the Asian markets, the Sensex was down by over 370 points, but soon regained momentum when the government released industrial production data for June. India’s industrial production for June 2009 surged 7.8%, which is much higher than a revised 2.2% growth in May 2009.
?Cues from the global markets played a major role on Wednesday. Stocks, however, bounced back mainly because of the industrial production numbers. There was a lot of buying in Nifty,? said Harjit Singh Sethi, country head, institutional equity broking, at Almondz Global Securities.
Broad-based selling resulted in key Asian equity indices closing deep in the red with Chinese Shanghai Composite losing 4.66%. Hang Seng, Jakarta Composite and Nikkei 225 dropped 3.03%, 2.16% and 1.42%, respectively.
According to the provisional figures released by the stock exchanges, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 504.99 crore. Though the Indian markets recovered from its initial losses, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market remained negative. On the BSE, a total of 1,368 stocks ended the day in the red compared to 1,214 stocks that advanced.