The two popular stock indices, Sensex at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and S&P CNX Nifty at National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Monday, differed in their trends with the later posting gains helped by spurt in non-Sensex constituents such as Reliance Petroleum and Cairn India.

But a key reason for the divergence of the two indices was a sharp fall in the scrip of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which has suffered losses of over Rs 200 crore in Dubai in the commodity derivatives trading. L&T has a much higher weightage of 7.18 per cent in Sensex compared to the stock’s 3.16 per cent weightage in Nifty. L&T ended the day with a  loss of 8.68 per cent.

Even as the market staged a solid rebound in second half after suffering a sharp fall earlier in the day as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index moved into green from red. The market had tumbled earlier in the day after a surprisingly weak US employment data on last Friday, heightened fears of a US recession.

Market breadth

Though Reliance Industries staged a strong comeback, the market breadth, however, remained weak as only 16 shares from the 30-member Sensex pack advanced.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 52 points at 15,923.72 and the broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 29 points at 4,800.40. Top gainers from the Nifty pack were Reliance Petroleum (up 7.51 per cent to Rs 153.85), and Cairn India (up 7.02 per cent to Rs 209.45).

European markets, which opened after Indian market, recovered after weak opening. Key benchmark indices in United Kingdom (up 0.19 per cent to 5,710.70) and France (up 0.09 per cent to 4,623.32) rose. Some Asian markets also recovered from early fall on Monday.