Mumbai: Distress selling by operators, leading to stale bull liquidiation in select counters by domestic funds, drove the SENSEX sharply down by 49.82 points to close at 3466.29 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 26, stretching losses for the third consecutive session.

With the SENSEX ending below the crucial 3500-support levels and volumes dropping to four months lows at Rs 875.98 crore, the general undertone has turned distinctly weak, even as the passing of the controversial POTO Bill also weighs on the market, dealers said.

They attributed the low volumes to a depressed sentiment following a truncated holiday week as operators preferred to book profits and decided to stay away in the current fluid political situation.

BSE was closed on March 25 on account of "Mohurrum" and will remain closed on March 29 because of "Holi & Good Friday".

A steep fall in the SENSEX could be gauged by a sharp decline in heavyweights from new as well as old economy segment like Infosys Tech, Satyam Computer, HCL Technologies, GACL, Grasim, HLL, Hindalco, ITC, L&T, RIL and Telco.

Mirroring the two-way trends at early stages, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly better at 3517.36 and immediately shot up to a high of 3566.08.

Later it fell back on heavy sell-off to a low of 3461.09 before finishing at 3466.29, a fall of 1.42 per cent from March 22 close of 3516.11.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined further by 17.04 points to 1705.41 from 1722.45 previously.

PTI