Markets have shown smart recovery in last half an hour of trade and ended marginally lower as heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, HDFC Bank, ITC, SBI, BHEL and Satyam have supported frontline indices. Short covering has helped markets to recover in late trade.

Sell off continued in metal, telecom, power, auto and technology stocks while buying seen in oil and banking stocks. Markets had opened lower on the back of weak global cues and traded sharply lower till 3 pm.

The Sensex and Nifty recovered over 217 points and 67 points from days low of 14,281.10 and 4281.35, respectively. Sensex closed with a loss of 66.02 points or 0.45% at 14,498.51. Nifty lost 11.35 points or 0.26% to settle at 4348.65. BSE Midcap and Small Cap Indices closed flat at 5,741.98 and 6,891.39, respectively.

Experts believe that overall trend is still negative in markets. Nandan Chakraborty, Head Of Research at Enam Securities feels that currently the markets are seeing a bear market rally. He does not anticipate a strong bull rally right now.

Shankar Sharma of First Global said that the overall trend in market is still down and the rally from 12,500-15,000 is over and done with. According to him, the markets may slip to 10,000 levels this year or early next year and may then start moving up gradually over next three years. He sees the Sensex bottom within the 10,000-12,500 range. He believes that the market could double from lows but that may be short-lived.

Amongst frontliners, Ranbaxy Labs plunged 3.61%, Tata Steel -2.67%, Maruti Suzuki -2.56%, Bharti Airtel -2.50%, NALCO -2.18% and Reliance Communication -1.71%. However, HCL Technologies gained 3.97%, Sun Pharma 2.45%, Hero Honda 2.33%, ABB 2.12%, ITC 1.72%, HDFC Bank 1.48%, BHEL 0.90%, SBI 0.88% and Satyam 0.85%.

BSE Metal Index lost 133.91 points or 1.08% at 12,214.11 due to selling in Tata Steel, NALCO, Sesa Goa, JSW Steel, Guj NRE Coke and SAIL.

Telecom stocks like Bharti Airtel, Tata Communication, Reliance Communication, MTNL, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have ended lower.

Power stocks also plunged, which include GMR Infra, GVK Power, Tata Power, NTPC, Reliance Infrastructure and Power Grid Corp. Index lost 0.44% to settle at 2,592.68.

IT Index ended lower by 0.32% at 3,954.17 as selling was seen in Infosys Technologies, Financial Tech, Patni Computer and Tech Mahindra.

Auto stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Apollo Tyres, M&M, Amtek Auto, MRF and Tata Motors declined. Index skid 0.30% to end at 3,989.41.

Capital Goods Index fell 0.19% at 11,863.78. Siemens, L&T, Crompton Greaves, Thermax, Kalpataru Power and Bharat Electronics have lost ground.

However, Oil & Gas Index gained 29.12 points or 0.30% at 9,688.58 as buying was seen in Essar Oil, Reliance Petroleum, GAIL, ONGC, Aban Offshore, HPCL and Reliance Ind.

FMCG stocks like Dabur India, ITC, Britannia and Tata Tea have jumped up. Index rose 0.23% at 2,220.63.

Bankex was up 0.17% at 7,021.35 due to buying in Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, PNB, Union Bank and SBI.

BSE Realty and Healthcare indices ended almost flat at 4,999.98 and 4,310.44, respectively.

Turnover traded in markets stood at Rs 52,623.97 crore. This includes Rs 9,838.12 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 37,943.16 crore from NSE F&O and balance Rs 4,842.69 crore from BSE cash segment.

Most active shares on the bourses were Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, SBI, Reliance Infrastructure and Infosys Tech.

Market breadth turned positive; about 1468 shares have advanced while 1395 shares declined. Nearly 308 shares remained unchanged.

On the primary market front, Resurgere Mines and Minerals India closed at 524.35, a premium of 94.20% over its issue price of Rs 270.

Asian markets ended sharply lower. Shanghai lost 3.01%, Hang Seng -1.67%, Nikkei -1.83%, Kospi -4.06%, Taiwan Weighted -3.31% and Straits Times -0.96%.