Sensex pares early losses; banks, IT drag; telecom surges

The BSE Sensex fell as much as 180 points in early trade on Thursday following concerns over US fiscal and geopolitical tension in West Asia. But immediately the market showed some recovery, helped by telecom stocks and somewhat short covering. The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 144 points to 18,474.87 and the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 43 points to 5,623.70. In the US markets, the Dow Jones closed at a 5-month low yesterday, losing 1.45 percent following President Barack Obama's press conference on the fiscal cliff, worries over the global economy and amid geopolitical tension in West Asia. Even Asian markets were under pressure. Shanghai, Hang Seng, Straits Times and Kospi went down 0.6-1.5 percent whereas only Nikkei outperformed with gains of over 1 percent.