Mumbai: Led by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), select heavyweight counters reeled under intense pressure, pushing the SENSEX down to 52- week low at 2,908.05 at close on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on October 24.

Bear operators targetted select key stocks that have high weightage in the index hammering down the prices in a bid to bring the SENSEX down, brokers said.

The SENSEX has lost over 100 points in the last four sessions due to sustained selling pressure.

Depicting the trend, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index which opened weak at 2,944.28, gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low to 2,906.20 before ending at 2,908.05 as against a close of 2,948.96 on October 23, netting a fall of 40.91 points or 1.39 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index dropped by 15.49 points to 1,449.16 from previous close of 1,464.65.

Attributing heavy sell-off by speculators and profit booking by some domestic funds to anticipation of discouraging Q3 working results by the market leader HLL, market sources said announcements of encouraging Q2 results by ITC and UTI Bank failed to stem the rot.

Brokers anticipate HLL results to be below the market expectations ahead of its board meeting on October 25, in view of unfavourable monsoon in many parts of the country this year.

Meanwhile, CMC Ltd announced dismal performance with its net profit dipping to Rs 5.20 crore in Q2 from 10.44 crore in the last corresponding period.

PTI