Mumbai: Sentiment turned bearish on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on September 18 as shares in the IT sector and oil majors met with heavy offloading following global bearishness, pulling down the SENSEX by 34.12 points to close at 3069.78.

Software shares suffered the most on frantic selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who reportedly pressed sales in front-line shares like Infosys Tech, Satyam Computer, Wipro and some of the second-rung stocks.

Oil scrips from public sector undertakings (PSUs) segment, HPCL, BPCL and IOC remained in doldrums on distress selling by operators as well as FIIs.

A steep decline in the SENSEX could be gauged by a sharp to moderate decline in 23 out of 30 index-based scrips.

Dealers attributed downslide in share values to a sharp fall on the Wall Street on September 17 night in the wake of decline in industrial production.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the NASDAQ composite index dropped by 172.63 points and 15.94 points respectively on September 17 night. South East Asian markets also ended lower on September 18.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened sharply lower at 3084.02 and gradually moved downwards to a low of 3062.43 before closing at 3069.78 as against previous close of 3103.90, a net loss of 1.10 per cent.

PTI