Markets recover at close

The Sensex has ended at 16,647, down 208 points, and the Nifty has ended at 4943, lower by 63 points (provisional closing).

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(Updated at 1439 pm)

The markets have recovered smartly in the last one-hour or so, thanks to leads from the European markets which started the recovery.

The Sensex, which touched a low of 16,210 in morning trades, is now down 271 points at 16,584.

The NSE Nifty is down 82 points at 4,924.

Jaiprakash Associates has shed 3.5% at Rs 214.

ICICI Bank, DLF and Larsen & Toubro have dropped nearly 3% each to Rs 840, Rs 344 and Rs 1,585, respectively.

SBI has declined 2.7% to Rs 2,191. HDFC and SBI have dropped 2.3% each to Rs 2,690 and Rs 2,201, respectively.

TCS is down over 2% at Rs 673. Infosys, HDFC Bank and Reliance are the other major losers.

Tata Steel has rebounded into green, and is now up over 1% at Rs 550. Bharti Airtel has also moved up nearly 1% at Rs 284.

The market breadth is extremely negative - out of 2,731 stocks traded so far, 2,196 have declined, and 480 have advanced on the BSE.