Mumbai: A fresh bout of selling spree in key counters pulled down the SENSEX by 26.79 points at 3116.79 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 27 and activity remained lacklustre due to last day of the derivative segment.

The volume of business was at low ebb, confining to very limited scrips, and undertone remained hesitant with the buyers hardly seen at sight.

Operators were forced to offload their long positions in certain stocks on the last day of derivative segment, resulting in marked decline in these shares, a broker said.

Easy overseas trend also influenced the market sentiment right from the onset of business as share values started weak following an overnight fall on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined by 50.35 points and 3.56 points respectively, getting conflicting reports about the Iraq war, dealers said.

Sharp to moderate losses in index-based scrips like RIL, HLL, HPCL, SBI, Tisco, Satyam Computer, L&T, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, BSES and Hero Honda caused the SENSEX to close weak.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened lower at 3138.89 from yesterday's close of 3143.58 and moved in a narrow range between 3146.29 and 3115.06 before concluding at 3116.79, a fall of 0.85 per cent.

The BSE-100 index also dropped by 13.19 points to 1540.44 from previous close of 1553.63.

According to market-men, operators and retail investors adopted a cautious approach following uncertainty over the early end to the Iraq war.

PTI