Sensex trims losses after initial crash, still down 259 points

Mumbai: After plunging about 1,689 points in early trade, benchmark Sensex recovered most of lost ground but was still trading lower by over 259 points in pre-closing as worried investors seemed clueless about markets direction after Donald Trump's victory in US election.

Besides, the government's decision to withdraw currency notes of higher denominations also added to the woes as sectors with higher dependency on cash transactions saw a massive sell-off.

However, late buying by domestic financial houses helped the Sensex recover towards the fag-end. Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 22 stocks were in negative zone.

The index had tumbled 1,689 points and the NSE Nifty fell below the 8,100-mark in early trade as investors indulged in all-round selling, tracking meltdown in global equities.

The rupee also traded off the day's low of 66.92 against the dollar on foreign fund outflows and demand from importers but selling of the American currency by banks helped rupee to pull back to Rs 66.40 (intra-day) at the forex market trade.

All the sectoral indices led by realty, metal and capital goods were still trading in red, falling by up to 9.91 per cent.

After resuming lower at 26,251.39 the Sensex continued its slide to crack below the 26,000-mark and hit a low of 25,902.45 before recovering to 27,331.88, still down by 259.25 points.

The broad-based NSE Nifty which dipped below the 8,100-mark and touched a low of 8,002.25, was trading at 8,458.30, still down by 85.25.

Global markets went into a tizzy with Japan's Nikkei tumbling 5.36 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 2.16 per cent. European stocks too were in the negative terrain with London Stock Exchange's FTSE index down 0.74 per cent.

A downwatred in futures also showed that Wall Street will likely open with heavy losses.