Sensex Ends 71 Pts Down After Rollercoaster Ride

Mumbai: Indian equity benchmarks closed with moderate loss amid extreme volatility on Thursday. The market remained in a consolidation mode since the morning trade and did not react to Wednesday's sharp fall in global markets on talks of credit rating downgrade in France, which commands AAA rating. In the second half of trade today, European markets and US index futures rebounded sharply, rallying 2-3 per cent but they could not able to hold on to those gains. In reaction to that in the late trade, the 30-share BSE fell 71 points, to close at 17,059. The 50-share NSE Nifty lost 23 points, to end at 5,138. Bruno Verstrate, CEO of Nautilus Invest is cautious on European markets. He is not a buyer of banks because, according to him, it is just a mater of time before the downgrade comes. 'At this stage, having had the downgrade of the US, many other AAA countries will be downgraded and that will create a big mess in the banks,' said Verstrate.