Mumbai, India: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram intervened in the sudden fall of the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex with an attempt to revive the confidence among the people. His statement has shed a positive impact and started curtailing the losses at over 653 points in pre-close trading.

The 30-share Sensex, which plunged by 1,408 points on Monday due to fears of a recession in the US, further tumbled by 2029 points at opening on Tuesday prompting suspension of trade for one hour.
It, however, recovered in fag-end trading to reduce the losses to 653.13 points at 16,952.22 at 1515 hours.

Market men said tumbling commodities prices and a drop in Asian markets added to the concern that world economic growth is faltering.
After the exchange authorities suspended trading, Finance Minister P Chidambaram asked investors to "stay calm."

The Sensex has now slumped more than 25 per cent from its closing peak on January 8, joining benchmarks in Asia and Europe into a bear market and extending a global selling.