Mumbai: The markets declined for the fifth straight session on Friday with the Sensex dropping over 340 points to close below 17K level, as a further rise in inflation dampened the trading sentiments.

The 30-share Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange ended the day at 16,737.07,a loss of 343.58 points, or 2.01 per cent, from its previous close.

The BSE barometer has shed 863 points, or 5.0 per cent, during the week.

The broader 50-share SP CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell further by 99.10 points or 1.95 per cent to close at 4,982.60.

Marketmen said inflation, which rose to 42-week high of 7.61 per cent for the week ended April 26, and rising crude oil prices were the key factors behind Friday's sharp slide.

Global oil prices hit yet another fresh record high at 124.73 dollars a barrel in European trade this afternoon.

Certain other factors such as weak global cues, worries about widening trade deficit, which might lead to slowdown in capital inflows, impacted the market sentiments, they added.

With selling pressure spilling over a wide front, all sectoral indices, barring FMCG index, closed lower. FMCG sector index was marginally better.

India's largest private sector company Reliance Industris took a hit of 5.19 per cent on concerns over high oil global prices.

Bank shares were also came under heavy selling pressure even as bankers discounted fears of any increase in interest rates. SBI was down by 3.13 per cent, while HDFC Bank closed lower by 3.74 per cent. ICICI Bank also lost 1.94 per cent.

Sensex stocks ACC, REL, and Japiprash also lost in the range of 4-6 per cent.

The country's biggest cellular service provider Bharti Airtel however was exceptionally firm with a gain of 1.76 per cent on indications that the company may make an offer to acquire South Africa's MTN Group.

Asian indices were down by about 0.31 per cent to 2.06 per cent while European markets, which opened this afternoon, were traded sharply lower by 1.29 per cent to 2.56 per cent.

The market breadth was extremely negative with 2,017 losers against 706 gainers on the BSE.

The trading volume rose to Rs 6,594.69 crore from Rs 5,965.87 crore on Thursday. Aishwarya Telecom topped the list of volume with highest turnover of Rs 502.20 crore followed by RPL (Rs 291.22 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 283.57 crore), RIL (Rs 268.66 crore) and IFCI (Rs 173.00 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 index tumbled by another 211.88 points to 8,865.05 from its previous close of 9,076.93.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted down at 2,081.88 and 832.50 at close compared to their last close of 2,132.10 and 850.84 respectively. The BSE-500 index dropped by 159.30 points to 6,653.45 from 6,812.75 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 3,300.38 from 3,361.26.

Source : Agencies