Volatile Sensex ends down 142 points

The markets continued to display high volatility for yet another day. After a soft opening, the Sensex rebounded into positive territory for a brief while only to slip back to lower levels.

The Sensex, which touched a high of 18,458 in late morning trades, however, was at 18,199, down over 238 points from the day's high at 1430 hours; late session trades saw the Nifty shed 77 points at 5,441.

However, the markets staged a partial recovery at close; the Sensex ended at 18,296 down 142 points, while the Nifty saw a decline of 49 points to end at 5,469.

Following news of mounting worldwide dissent against Libya, Asian markets opened on a weak note, and effects were also felt on the Indian bourses.

Civil unrest following an uprising against the country's leader of 41 years, Muammar Gaddafi intensified, with several casualties being reported in the strife-stricken nation.

Oil prices surged to clinch a 2.5 year high at $108.7 for Brent crude amidst concerns tensions in the Middle-Eastern country could hamper the OPEC-member's oil output, which could possibly spill over to other Middle-Eastern and North African countries.

At the same time, a powerful earthquake on New Zealand, which left nearly 65 dead, and sevral others injured and homeless, also sobered market sentiment across Asia-Pacific.

Japan's Nikkei, the Hang Seng, the Seoul Composite, the Straits Times and the Taiwan Weighted were considerably weak, and quoting 2% lower than their respective previous closes.

Major European indices also saw movements in the negative territory, with the FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 down nearly 1% each.

Domestically, political issues continued to simmer. The PM requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to proceed with the JPC formation to investigate into the burgeoning 2G spectrum scam, and announced the government is committed to weed out corruption.

In the ongoing pre-Budget parliamentary session, the FM said inflationary pressures were primarily due to food and fuel prices, and the economy may need to absorb the impact of rising global prices on inflation.

He also added supply-side monetary measures are being taken to tackle sticky inflation numbers.

The Capital Goods index, the highest loser on the sectoral charts, ended at 12,928 down 2%. Anticipation of a hike in excise duty saw the BSE Auto index languish for the second consecutive day. The index was amongst one of the top sectoral losers at 8,449, while the Bankex was a laggard in trade, down 2% each.

Gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries at Rs 985 up 3%, Reliance Communications at Rs 95 and Sterlite Industriues at Rs 168, both up 1%.

Losers on the Sensex were Hero Honda at Rs 1,391 down 3.4%, L&T at Rs 1,609 and HDFC Bank at Rs 2,144 both down a little less than 3%.