The markets remained under bears control through the day following weak cues from Asian and US markets. It has started showing smart recovery since the middle of session as major European markets trading in the green barring DAX and strong buying in oil and gas space but closed on a weaker note for second straight day triggered by power, capital goods, technology, telecom and banking stocks. 

The Sensex reovered almost 250 points and the Nifty over 80 points from days low. The Sensex closed below 16000 mark while the Nifty turned back to 4700 levels. Midcap and small cap stocks also finished lower. 

The Sensex closed at 15,962.56, down 100.62 points or 0.63% after hitting an intraday high of 15,985.40 and low of 15,709.51. The Nifty touched a high/low of 4739.30 and 4634 before ending the day at 4715.90, down 23.7 points or 0.5%.

Top losers were Bharti Airtel (-4.23%), Reliance Infra (-3.87%), Satyam (-3.64%), BHEL (-2.95%), Suzlon Energy (-3.75%) and Power Grid Corp (-3.71%) while gainers - ACC (3.74%), Ranbaxy Labs (3.09%), DLF (2.61%), Wipro (2.57%) and Cairn India (3.30%). 

Markets breadth was negative, about 974 shares have advanced, 1973 shares declined, and 165 shares remained unchanged.

Power Index underperformed other indices, down by 2.64% at 2,754.20 led by selling in Reliance Power, Reliance Infra, Power Grid Corp, Suzlon Energy, CESC, Tata Power, NTPC and GVK Power.

Capital goods stocks like Kalpataru Power, Greaves Cotton, Suzlon Energy, Triveni Engg, BHEL, ABB, L&T, Punj Lloyd and Siemens collapsed. BSE Capital Index fell by 2.24% or 287.50 points at 12,521.25.

Amongst telecom stocks, Bharti Airtel, Spice Comm, Tata Comm, Reliance Comm and Tata Teleservices were down.

IT Index lost 1.49% to settle at 4,512.09 due to weakness in Mphasis, Satyam, HCL Tech, Patni Computer, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and TCS.

Banking stocks including Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, Yes Bank, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, PNB, ICICI Bank and SBI lost ground. Bankex plunged 0.77% at 7,397.25.

Some selling also seen in metal and FMCG stocks, respective indices fell 0.39% and 0.33%, respectively. 

Amongst metal space, Guj NRE Coke, NALCO, Sterlite Ind, Sesa Goa, Tata Steel and Hind Zinc were losers and in the FMCG space, losers were United Spirits, Tata Tea, Dabur India and P&G.

Midcap Index lost 0.56% at 6,547.30 and Small Cap index down by 0.97% at 7,882.29. In the midcap segment, ABG Shipyard, Balrampur Chini, Kalpataru Power, Madras Aluminiu, Simplex Infra, Deccan Aviation, Mphasis, IVR Prime, Plethico Pharma, Maytas Infra, Balaji Telefilm and BF Utilities plunged over 5% and in the small cap space, Panchmahal Stee, TRF, Page Industries, Greenply Ind, Surana Ind, Kemrock Indus and Glodyne Techno down over 6%.

Realty stocks also made a sharp rebound, Index recovered loss of over 3% and managed to close with marginal loss of 0.03% or just 2 points.

However, Oil & Gas space has become outperformer of the day, index gained 2.02% or 205.78 points to close at 10,412.49 as buying interest seen in Essar Oil, Cairn India, IOC, HPCL, Reliance, Petronet LNG and ONGC.

Auto and pharma stocks also shown smart recovery. BSE Auto was up 0.27% at 4,370.05 as Tube Investment, Exide Industries, Bharat Forge, Tata Motors, Hero Honda and Cummins gained. 

Healthcare Index gained 0.23% at 4,360.26 led by buying in Orchid Chemical, Ranbaxy Labs, Divis Labs, Lupin, Nicholas Piramal and Cipla.

Reliance, DLF, L&T, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel were most active shares on the bourses. 

Total turnover traded by markets stood at Rs 58695.5 crore including Rs 13006.81 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 40448.71 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 5239.98 crore from BSE Cash segment.

Asian markets were trading weak. China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.46% or 15.94 points at 3,443.10. Japan's Nikkei plunged 1.51% or 218.35 points at 14,221.79. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.49% or 370.25 points at  24,461.11. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted tumbled 0.84% or 73.33 points at 8,651.14. Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.96% or 30.60 points at 3,157.45. South Korea's Seoul Composite fell 1.17% or 21.64 points at 1,825.89.