Mumbai: Nervousness continued to grip the Bombay Stock Exchange on March 12, after jittery operators resorted to panic-sales ahead of the Supreme Court ruling on the contentious Ram Temple issue, pushing down the SENSEX by yet another whopping 68.17 points to close at 3535.80.

Tumbling down to its third straight session decline, the SENSEX continued to be weighed down heavily by the Ayodhya events, as wary operators refrained from taking fresh positions ahead of the court ruling and pushed forward distress sales, dealers said.

Shallow volumes in the absence of major players because of the Shivratri festival, also partly aggravated the fall, they added.

Selling pressure was observed across the board with both the old and new economy shares suffering fresh setbacks.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened cautiously weak at 3603.16 and later dipped to intra-day lows of 3522.91, before settling at 3535.80, a sharp fall of 1.89 per cent from previous closing levels of 3603.97.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also dropped by 26.64 points to 1728.08.

Traders' attention will be focussed on the Supreme Court verdict on March 13 on crucial issues stemming out of the controversial decision of (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) VHP to perform "Bhoomi poojan" near the disputed site at Ayodhya on March 15.

PTI