Sensex tanks 226 pts

 
Erasing initial moderate gains, the Sensex dropped to the day’s low of 14,684.45, before ending with a loss of 225.62 points at 14,809.64. It touched the day’s high of 15,096.94.
In a similar fashion, the wide-based NSE index Nifty shuffled in a wide range of 4,477.55 to 4,353.45 before ending lower by 64.80 points at 4,394.10.

Selling pressure was up after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said farm output may decline because of the weak monsoon. The bearish trends were strengthened on reports of shares falling in China and the rest of Asia, and Europe on growing fears that the five-month rally on the bourses worldwide is waning because of doubts on the possibility of a global economic recovery.

European stocks fell one per cent in early trade while US stock futures were down 0.9 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei lost 0.79 per cent, Hong Kong’s Heng Seng 1.73 per cent and Singapore’s Straits Times 1.75 per cent.