Mumbai: Equities beat a hasty retreat after an initial smart upsurge pushing the SENSEX in the negative territory at close today on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) due to late profit booking by speculators and public investors.

Rising remarkably on the back of early stocks rally, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index hit the intra-day high at 3663.40 rpt 3663.40. However, late selling pressure adversely impacted the sentiment and the SENSEX later turned weak ending at 3613.28 as against March 16 close of 3617.68, netting a loss of 4.40 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also eased marginally by 1.54 points to 1761.19 from previous close of 1762.73.

Initially, speculators and general public made large commitments with reports of normalcy returning fast to the temple town of Ayodhya after "shila daan" programme last week by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

However, operators resorted to selling after a statement by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Rajya Sabha that the country was passing through a difficult phase as regards economy.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which were net sellers last week, were believed to have sold shares of select stocks in the latter part of the session.

Market sources said operators were generally diluting their positions due to approaching accounting yearend.

PTI