Mumbai: After a massive stocks rally in the preceding week, the market turned weak and the Sensex fell back by 2.68 per cent on the stock exchange (BSE) during the week upto February 20, largely because of sustained profit booking by retailers and operators.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index that had risen by 225 points during last week witnessed wide fluctuations in a range between 6082.80 and 5770.87 before ending the week at 5850.72 as against last weekend's close of 6011.66, netting a sharp fall of 160.94 points.

Even as Foreign Institutional Investors that remained the main drivers of the market made sizeable net investments of Rs 1,070 crore in the first four sessions, retailers and operators resorted to heavy selling ahead of key public issues by large companies in the next couple of months.

Domestic mutual funds alone made net sales of Rs 302 crore in the initial four days of the week.

Retailers and operators seemed to be keen in diverting investments to primary markets and sold off large chunk of their holdings at the higher price levels to invest in the public offerings.

The public offering of the Government's 24 per cent in IPCL received bids for 6.5 crore shares against an offer of 5.9 crore shares on the first day of bidding on February 20.

The Government's offer to sell 20 per cent stake in Dredging Corporation of India will open on February 26.

The Governments offer to sell its stake in other major companies like CMC, ONGC, IBP and GAIL are expected to steal the focus away from the secondary market.