Mumbai: After an enthusiastic start, the top heavyweight Reliance Industries ltd (RIL) ran out of steam and dropped sharply from the day's high and in turn, pulled the SENSEX down by 38.21 points to close at a more than 5-1/2-month low at 2947.33 on Bombay the Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 23 due to late selling pressure from foreign funds and operators.

Operators and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had built up positions in RIL ahead of the company's announcement of results, later pressed all-round sales as the performance fell marginally short of the market expectations.

Other heavyweight counters like HLL, Tisco, Telco, SBI, Satyam Computers, HDFC, HCL Tech, Infosys Tech, MTNL and HPCL also recorded marked falls, impacting the SENSEX negatively.

Depicting the slide, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index that had risen past 3000-level to the intra-day high at 3009.01, later fell back sharply to end at 2947.33 as against yesterday's close of 2985.54, netting a fall of 1.28 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also dropped by 14.77 points to 1467.22 from previous close of 1481.99.

RIL posted a 26.54 per cent growth in the net profit at Rs 4,104 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2003 with the fourth quarter net rising by 31.85 per cent to Rs 1,101 crore. The company has recommended a 50 per cent dividend for the fiscal 2002-03.

Brokers said FIIs, which had been net buyers on Monday, were believed to have made net sales, particularly in RIL, during the session.

PTI