Mumbai: After a three-session winning streak, equities suffered a sharp setback pushing the SENSEX sharply down by about 49 points at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 15 in the wake of heavy selling triggered by negative political developments.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened on a promising note at 3514.01 and tended to move upwards rising to the day's high at 3533.02 at early stages. However, late selling turned the market weak and the SENSEX ended at 3461.51 as against April 12 close of 3510.60, netting a loss of 49.39 points or 1.41 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index dipped by 21.70 points to 1731.27 from previous close of 1752.97.

Domestic operators as well as institutional investors turned cautious after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) blunt rejection of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) demand for removal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi that caused fears of political instability if TDP, a crucial ally of BJP, withdrew support to the Vajpayee government, market sources said.

Reports that the Opposition paralysed proceedings in both Houses of Parliament with the TDP also backing their demand for removal of Modi, after giving a notice of adjournment motion on the "failure" of the Centre and the Gujarat government to contain the "continuing communal situation", also fuelled selling pressure.

Domestic institutions reportedly were sellers in key Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) stocks like BHEL, BPCL, BEL, MTNL, IOC and some others, while Foreign Institutional Investors sold off select IT shares.

PTI