Indian shares fell 2.2 percent on Monday, recovering on bargain hunting from a sharp intra-day 11.5 percent plunge, after overseas funds sold heavily on fears of a world-wide recession, dealers said. The benchmark 30-share Sensex closed down 191.51 points at 8,509.56, recovering from an intra-day low of 7,697.39, its lowest level since October 2005.
"The scenario is not right for any form of investment. Investors are jittery as there is no clarity on how much overseas funds will sell," said Bhaskar Kapadia, partner with brokerage Pyramid Securities. Indian shares have fallen more than 58 percent for the year, as overseas funds pull their money out of emerging markets such as India to move to safer havens.
However property and telecom stocks, which had been battered in recent weeks, rose Monday. "There was absolute capitulation in morning dealings. Overseas funds are pulling out due to liquidity concerns. The regulators need to act quickly to boost investor confidence," said Naresh Garg, chief investment officer with Sahara Mutual fund.
Investors were also nervous ahead of the expiry of the monthly futures contract on Wednesday, unclear of the global market trend. The markets will be open for a brief one-hour ceremonial trade on Tuesday evening to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, and the start of a new accounting period. In Monday's trade, losers led gainers 2,019 to 515 on turnover of 58.45 billion rupees (1.16 billion dollars).
Overseas funds have sold Indian equities worth 12.04 billion dollars this year, after being net buyers of shares worth 17.18 billion dollars during the same period last year. India's leading vehicle maker Tata Motors fell 22.7 rupees or 13.95 percent to 140.15, on concerns of low sales in the ongoing festive season.
India's largest bank State Bank of India slid 99.75 rupees or 8.63 percent to 1,056.6, despite showing a better-than-expected 40.2 percent rise in net profit in the second quarter. SBI's net profit for the three months to September rose to 22.59 billion rupees (451 million dollars) against 16.11 billion rupees a year earlier.
Engineering multinational Larsen and Toubro dropped 55.6 rupees or 7.13 percent to 723.8, a day after India's central bank lowered the forecast for India's economic growth to 7.5-8.0 percent. India's biggest telecom firm Bharti Airtel rose 32 rupees or 5.99 percent to 566.45 while India's largest private sector bank ICICI Bank added 6.3 rupees or 2.03 percent to 215.75.
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