Mumbai: Panic sell-off by investors drove the SENSEX down by another 2.29 per cent over the week on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that witnessed a series of negative developments followed by renewed fears of tension between Indian and Pakistan.

Heavily weighed down by fresh war fears induced by a major terrorist strike that killed 28 persons in Jammu on July 13 coupled with a global gloom, stocks drifted further sharply extending losses in the BSE barometer for the second consecutive week.

Other factors that contributed to the downslide were the meltdown in major world stocks markets almost throughout the week, continued dry spell and erratic rainfall in some parts leading to widespread fears of drought situation in the country as well as reports about RPL's reversal of interest income in the balance sheet of the past due to non-payment of advances given to RIL and other group companies.

The Finance Minister Jaswant Singh's reported advice to cut the interest rate on employees' provident fund (EPF) from 9.5 per cent to 9 per cent with no mention about any tax breaks too had adverse impact on the market.

IT major Wipro's announcement of first quarter results that fell short of the market projections partially affected the sentiment in general and software sector in particular.

The volley of selling on Wall street was so intensive that the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by another 665.27 points and after combining with last week's losses, it sank to its four-year low.

The Pharma sector, however, fared better on value-based buying. Ranbaxy Lab posted a sharp 190 per cent jump in net profit in the second quarter of 2002.

During the week, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index moved in a range of 3,305.85 and 3,192.67 before finishing the week at 3,230.27 as against the previous weekend's close of 3,305.83, netting a sharp fall of 79.59 points. The broad-based BSE-100 Index dropped by 29.44 points to close the week at 1,631.08 from previous weekend's close of 1,660.52.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 Index were quoted sharply lower at 390.74 and 133.47 at the weekend compared with preceding weekend's close of 397.74 and 135.78 respectively.

The BSE-500 index softened further by 23.49 points to conclude the week at 1,175.64 from 1,199.13 at the previous weekend and the Dollex-30 ended the week substantially down at 544.12 from the previous weekend weekend's close of 556.51.

PTI