Mumbai: Bear operators tightened their grip on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Mar 11, 2004) and pulled down the Sensex by 109.43 points to close at 5649.86, following heavy all-round selling triggered by bearish global advices.

Extending losses to the third straight session, the benchmark index lost a massive 285.33 points or 4.81 per cent on relentless selling across the spectrum, dealers said.

In the absence of any worthwhile support from any quarters, retail operators and local funds booked profits ahead of the fiscal year-end, they added.

Once again banking and public sector undertakings, particularly refinery shares, suffered sharp setbacks on heavy offloading by institutional investors.

Weak global trends impacted the market negatively after the overnight tumble of 160.07 points and 31.01 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index.

South East Asian markets displayed a distinctly bearish trend with the Hang Seng plunging by 190.14 points, the Nikkei slumping by 136.20 points and Singapore ST index dropping sharply by 27.24 points.

European markets resumed weak this morning with the DAX crashing by nearly 135 points, CAC tumbling by 102 points and the FTSE dipping by 95 points in early trade.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened lower at 5737.69 and gyrated in a range between 5763.71 and 5634.48 before concluding at 5649.86, a steep decline of 1.90 per cent.