S&P assurance calms mkt

With a pick-up in short covering, Sensex has managed to see a meaningful recovery of 400 points from the day's low point. Rating agency S&P's statement that there would be no immediate impact of US rating cut on India provided the much-needed relief. This was in contrast to the talks doing the rounds yesterday that S&P downgrade may hit other countries and companies.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,843, down 147 points after 400 points recovery from day's low of 16,432. The 50-share NSE Nifty was trading down 43 points at 5,075.

Short covering impact: Sterlite Industries and DLF gained 2%. SBI, BHEL, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDFC went up 0.5%.

Fresh longs were seen in ONGC, M&M, Baja Auto and Ambuja Cements, which moved up 1-3%.

Asian markets too recovered 3-5% from day's low. China's Shanghai, which fell 2.5% in early trade, was flat. Kospi, which tumbled 9%, lost just 3.4%.

Advance:decline ratio, which was 1:15 in early trade, improved to 1:4.

At 11:21 hours IST: Market recovers from day's low; IT down 3%

The Indian equity market was trading off the day’s low point, though all sectoral indices were still in red. The NSE Nifty was trading above the 5050 mark. Stocks like Reliance, Infosys, ICICI Bank, TCS and L&T were major laggards in the bourses.

Is it too late for gold fever?

Is it too late to buy gold? It soared to a record USD 1,700 an ounce Monday after the United States suffered its first-ever debt downgrade at the hands of Standard & Poor's.

With gold rising 30% this year and nearly 400% over the past decade, it's reasonable to ask when the fever might break.

In recent days it's gone completely viral as the debt crisis plunged financial markets to the biggest losses in two years.

"People who weren't talking about it even six months ago are heavily interested in gold today," says Frank Trotter, president of EverBank Direct in Jacksonville, Florida, which holds nearly USD 500 million worth of precious metals in the form of hard assets for clients.

Gold purchases leaped to more than 18 million ounces over the past month -- from 8.4 million for the entire year up to July, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

People are betting gold will come through the present debt crisis shining. In the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, gold dropped by 20% -- but the metal was hurt as the US dollar became the safe haven of choice. In the debt showdown this year, the dollar has suffered and gold leaped.

Sensex shaky in seesaw trade

The market was extremely volatile with a negative bias after showing more than 300 points recovery from day's low. Investors as well as traders were covering their shorts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,726, down 264 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty dropped 78 points to 5,039.

TCS, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Wipro and Hindalco were top losers among largecaps, falling 3-4.5%.

About 40 shares out of 50 on the Nifty were in the red. However, some fresh longs were seen in ONGC, Ambuja Cements and ACC, which were up 0.8-2.3%. M&M, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti gained on the back of short covering.

On the global front, European futures like DAX, CAC and FTSE were down 5-9%.

At 10:26 hours IST: Short-selling arrests Sensex's fall, Nifty holds 5K

Indian investors continue to short cover their positions which helped Nifty to hold the 5000 mark and BSE benchmark Sensex to further pare its losses. The 30-share BSESensex was trading at 16738, down 250 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 5,044, down 74 points. Selling continued in sectors like technology, telecom, capital goods, metal and power companies..

Dow closes below 11K

Wall Street saw a sharp nosedive to finish at session lows with S&P 500 plummeting over 6%, its lowest close since September 2010, while the Dow closed well below the psychologically-significant 11,000 mark. All eyes will be on the Fed meeting today.

Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 5.55% or 634.76 points at 10809.85. Nasdaq Composite fell 6.9% or 174.72 points at 2357.69. Standard & Poor's 500 declined 6.66% or 79.92 points at 1119.46.

Asian markets trading lower

At 9:53 am (IST), Asian markets were trading lower but managed to recoup some of the losses.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 6.01% or 1232.06 points at 19,258.51.

Japan's Nikkei was down 3.69% or 335.84 points at 8,761.72.

South Korea's Seoul Composite slipped 6.75% or 126.15 points at 1,743.30.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted shed 1.18% or 89.28 points at 7,463.52.