After opening the day on a flat note, Indian equities closed the week on a negative note with Realty stocks being hit the most.  

After the announcement of depressing GDP numbers, the 30-share BSE Sensex slipped further downwards.

A fag-end buying assisted Sensex to recover the majority of its heavy losses but still closed down by 63 points.

Bears spared midcap and smallcap counters. The BSE Midcap index fell 0.04%, whereas Smallcap index lost 0.22%.

According to the facts available at the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), India’s economic growth slumped to 5.3% during the third quarter of fiscal 2008-09 to mark the lowest growth rate in any quarter in the last five years.

The manufacturing segment growth dropped 0.2% during the third quarter, while the farm segment contracted an annual 2.2%.

Besides hopes of a cut in interest rates due to declining growth and the continued fall in inflationary numbers, a better than expected show by Tata Steel in the quarter ended 31 December 2008 contributed to the smart recovery.

The Sensex ended the day at 8,891.61, down 63.25 points after hitting an intra-high of 8,944.11 and an intra-day low of 8,728.66.

In contrast, the broad-based NSE Nifty lost 22.00 points at 2,763.65 after touching an intra-day high of 2,787.20 and an intra-day low of 2,708.45.

The top gainers’ in the 30-share index included Tata Steel (5.61%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (4.75%), HDFC Bank (1.35%), ICICI Bank (1.03%), Hindustan Unilever (0.30%), and State Bank Of India (0.29%).

On the other hand, the major losers in the Sensex were Grasim Industries (-5.99%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (-4.80%), Wipro (-3.98%), Reliance Energy (-3.71%), and ACC (-3.55%).

The market saw 1,043 advancements as against 1,320 declinations.

European stocks traded negatively. UK’s benchmark index FTSE 100 lost 60.23 points at 3,855.41.

In the meantime, French benchmark index CAC 40 lost 39.18 points at 2,705.66.

Germany’s benchmark index DAX fell 76.25 points at 3,866.37.