Mumbai: A sustained sell-off in old-economy heavyweights pushed the SENSEX further down by 52.80 points to close at 3603.97 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 11, driven down by concerns over escalating tensions at Ayodhya.

A sharp fall in index-based counters like HLL, RIL, HPCL were mainly responsible for the steep fall in the SENSEX, dealers said.

Despite a strong opening at 3675.26 helped by a weekend rally at NASDAQ, share values later met with selling following a stalemate at Ayodhya after the All India Muslim Personal Law Board rejected the Kanchi Shankaracharya's formula for a symbolic Puja at Ayodhya.

Late market speculation that Pakistani troops fired on an Indian aircraft also affected the sentiment, dragging down the SENSEX further towards the close, a broker commented.

However, India denied any IAF aircraft strayed into Pakistani air space and was fired upon.

Some of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) stocks also bore the brunt of local funds selling as these scrips were in keen demand for last couple of weeks.

However, majority of software counters bucked the general trend and attracted brisk buying support from speculators as well as retail investors following a smart upsurge of 48 points in the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index on March 8.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened firm at 3675.26, which happened to be the day's high, and gradually moved downwards to a low of 3594.60.

Finally it finished at 3603.97 as against close of 3656.77 on March 8, a fall of 1.44 per cent.

PTI