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.

What pulled the BSE Sensex down
According to Angel Broking, Indian markets opened in the red tracking the SGX Nifty and global cues.

“The Greece issue has caused the downfall and the subdued sentiments globally. As there is no clarity on the whether the creditors will give more time or the earlier debt payment deadline of June 30 remains,” Dipen Shah, head of the private client group research, Kotak Securities, said.

The Greek government has called for a referendum to let the people decide on the terms and conditions of another bailout.

However, the July 5 referendum will come after the June 30 deadline, when Greece has to repay part of its debt to the IMF.

On June 4, Greece had deferred a payment of 300 million euro that was due to the IMF.

The Greek banking system is expected to collapse, if a default takes place, leaving the country at the mercy of the European Central Bank’s emergency funding.

Double taxation avoidance treaty with Mauritius
“Apart from the Greece issue, we have had the double taxation avoidance treaty (DTA) talks with Mauritius,” Anand James, co-technical head for research with Geojit BNP Paribas.

“Other triggers were the subdued Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets because of the increase in terror activity in the region and the general anxiety related to the monsoon’s performance during July, when it is predicted to weaken,” James said.

During Monday’s intra-day trade so far, a majority of sector-based indices of the S&P BSE were in the red.

Selling pressure
Heavy selling pressure was seen in automobile, information technology (IT), healthcare, bank, consumer durables, capital goods, technology, entertainment and media (TECK), metal, oil and gas and realty sectors.

The S&P BSE automobile index plunged by 259.36 points, followed by the IT index which plummet by 224.95 points, healthcare index crashed by 221.94 points, bank index receded by 176.91 points and consumer durables fell by 158.62 points.

The S&P BSE capital goods index declined by 115.78 points, TECK index decreased by 103.38 points, metal index edged-lower by 102.66 points, oil and gas index fell by 68.17 points and realty index was down by 27.64 points.

However, the S&P BSE fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) index was up by 20.43 points.

With agency inputs