Mumbai: Speculation of a possible payment crisis jolted the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 12, as share values plunged on a fresh wave of heavy selling, pulling down the SENSEX by a whopping 44.83 points to close at 3110.08 and cut short a brief overnight rally, even as diplomatic haggling over Iraq kept prices hovering around 3-months lows.

Some of the brokers, who had taken long positions before the Budget with the aim of booking huge profits later, found themselves in a vastly overbought situation in the face of sustained battering by the bear cartel, leading to a virtual sell-off at prevailing low levels, a prominent broker said.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened lower at 3151.60 as against yesterday's close of 3154.91 and briefly touched a high of 3158.98. Later it dipped to a low of 3106.85 before finishing at 3110.08, a fall of 1.42 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 also ended lower by 19.16 points at 1536.69 from previous close of 1555.85.

Yesterday's bright spot, petro-chem giant and heavily weighted counter, RIL suffered a sharp setback as also software bellwether Infosys Tech, which encountered selling by institutional investors.

Other shares from index family like HLL, HPCL, Telco, Hero Honda, HDFC, ITC, Ranbaxy, Satyam Computer, SBI, Telco, Zee Telefilms and Glaxo also ended in the red.

IT counters bore the brunt of selling by speculators on negative advices from Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped by 44.12 points and 6.90 points respectively last night.

PTI