In a seesaw trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex today ended flat after rebounding from the day’s deep lows it hit on lower-than- expected growth projection.

Weighed down by lower Asian advices, the Sensex opened 95 points down and hit a low of 15,651.99 on all-round heavy selling triggered by the 7.2 per cent GDP advance estimate, but managed to close in the green with a meagre 19.96 points up at 15,935.61, on strong European advices.

The index shuttled between 16,061.41 and 15,651.99intraday and yet failed to regain psychological 16,000-mark for the second day in a row, as sellers outnumbered buyers in high beta counters. However, strong European equities with higher commodity prices boosted energy and mining shares and also recovery in financial services which slipped 6 per cent last week, assisted the market rally in the later part of the day to close in the green for the second day in a row after last week’s bloodbath. Angel Broking vice-president for research Sarabjit Kour Nangra said, “the market was driven down by GDP numbers as it somewhat acted as a dampener on the investor sentiment. Although the market was flatish in the morning, negative sentiment brought in by the GDP numbers pulled it down.” The broader 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange too ended with meagre changes at 4,760.40 gaining 3.15 points, after swaying between 4,799.05 and 4,675.40 points. The index opened 26 points down following poor Asian cues. Following the world markets, last Friday, the Sensex had tumbled by 434 points, while on Saturday, on special trading, it was ended higher by nearly 125 points on a better than expected recovery on the Wall Street overnight. Marketmen said funds were so heavily selling, which got accentuated after the lower-than-expected GDP advance estimate at 7.2 per cent. Though this bettered the market expectation of 7 per cent, it was lower than the government’s and RBI’s estimates, hence the market’s negative reaction. But the strong European sentiment helped the market towards the fag-end and helped recover the huge fall post-the GDP numbers. Bonanza Portfolio assistant vice-president Avinash Gupta also agreed that it was the European cues that helped the market rebound, saying “the strong opening of European markets induced short covering which pulled the markets up.”