With the rupee sliding to record low levels, jittery foreign funds resorted to aggressive selling pulling down the key index below 16,000 level for the first time in a little more than 4 months.
Though it managed to close at 16,030.09--a drop of 298.16 points or 1.83 per cent-- a whopping notional loss of Rs 77,000 crore for investors -- in a session in which 6 out of 10 stocks fell across the counters.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee attributed the market slide to Euro crisis and other international difficulties.
Referring to the crisis in eurozone and its impact on India, he told Rajya Sabha that government would resort to some sort of austerity measures whether people like it or not to convey a signal that it was responding to the situation.
His pep talk seems to have bolstered the sentiment as the Sensex regained nearly 50 points at the fag-end.
Market analysts, however, said besides global cues, sharp rupee depreciation for markets was a big concern. (MORE)
