Mumbai: Sensex extended its downward trend for the third consecutive day on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Nov 20) and dropped by 52.5 points as shares continued to fall sharply due to increased selling pressure, mainly by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

Operators who had built up large positions in Futures and Options also indulged in heavy offering in order to square up their holdings before Thursday, the last day for the November contract of derivatives, dealers said.

The market opened on a better note, however, emergence of selling pressure during the day, pulled down prices and closed with widespread losses.

Mirroring the market trend, the BSE benchmark 30-share index opened better at 4,840.80 and after rising to a high of 4,878.81, declined sharply to 4,763.53 before closing at 4,771.23, revealing a sharp setback of 1.09 per cent over the previous close of 4,823.73.

The broad-based BSE-100 index also declined sharply by 33.14 points to 2,454.93 from the previous close of 2,488.07.

Selling pressure was so heavy that even firm overseas advices were ignored. In Wall Street, prices had risen smartly last night on good buying, marketmen said.

The major losses were Reliance, BSES, Grasim, HDFC Bank, Infosys Tech, BHEL, ONGC, ITC, Ranbaxy, State Bank, Tata Power, Wipro, Tata Motors and Tisco.

Elsewhere, ACC, Bharti Tele, HLL, HPCL, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, ICICI Bank and MTNL also closed weak.

However, GACL, HDFC, Hero Honda, Hindalco, Dr Reddy and Satyam computer closed better on some buying.

PTI