Indian markets made a sharp bounce back from their day's lows with the BSE Sensex recovering by about 440 points and the NSE Nifty recovering by about 125 points at the closing session.
But it is not just the Greek tragedy that seems to have spooked the global markets. Apart from a string of terrorist attacks that unnerved the markets, fears of slowdown in the Chinese economy also seem to have weighed with the global investors.
The Sensex, which sank to a low of 27,209.19, has pulled back to 27,645.15, still down by 166.69 points or 0.6 per cent, but has recovered by 435.96 points from the day's low.
Similarly, the Nifty, which sank to a low of 8,195 points, has pulled back to 8,318.40 points, still down by 62.7 points or 0.75 per cent, but has recovered by 123.40 points from the day’s low.
It is not clear whether the recovery was just a pullback rally or whether the investors are confident of the Indian markets not being too adversely affected by the Greek developments.
Barring FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, realty index fell the most by 2.23 per cent, followed by IT 1.7 per cent, infrastructure 1.46 per cent and TECk 1.4 per cent, while FMCG index was up 0.28 per cent.
Top five Sensex losers were Hindalco (-3.55%), SBIN (-2.08%), Sun Pharma (-2.03%), Maruti (-1.93%) and Tata Motors (-1.76%), while the major gainers were HUL (+2.1%), NTPC (+0.8%), ITC (+0.53%), Dr Reddy's (+0.5%) and L&T (+0.44%).
Sageraj Bariya of East India Securities in a report said: "The goal post has shifted to 5th July - That's how we can best sum up the Greece situation. Non-payment to IMF will not be a credit event as IMF considers this as arrears so fears of a contagion are ruled out for now. By the looks of it a referendum call is a political one as the Syriza hardliners would not have accepted reneging on the poll promises hence it's best that the Greek voters decide their fate. Also, a YES vote would probably lead to some sort of a long-term solution which will be a good outcome. The problem would be a NO vote and we will not know this until end of July 1st week. News reports & book runners are calling that it would be YES vote but we will keep our fingers crossed. Until then a 1 per cent - 2 per cent correction can be expected in equity markets and volatility could be expected based on the sound bytes until then."
Global markets
European shares took a hammering in early deals on Monday, with Southern European banks especially badly hit, after Greece closed its banks and imposed capital controls as a result of its debt problems.
Portugal’s PSI-20 benchmark share index sank 5 per cent, worse than a 3 per cent drop in the pan-European, blue-chip FTSEurofirst 300 index.
The euro fell almost 2 per cent and share prices tumbled across Asia on Monday as Greece looked set to default on its debt repayment this week, forcing Athens to impose capital controls to halt bank runs.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 2.1 per cent, while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 1.4 per cent.