Mumbai: Reacting negatively to the adverse projections for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the second phase of elections, the Sensex opened weak and later dropped sharply by over 160 points during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Apr 27, 2004).

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened lower at 5,868.33 as against last Friday's (Apr 23, 2004) close of 5,925.28 and later dipped to a low at 5,759.14 before being quoted at 5,778.15 at 10.15 hrs (IST).

Operators and public investors that prefer the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the Government after the Lok Sabha elections, pressed across-the-board sales in a bid to unload their holdings at the early stages of the session, brokers said.

The television exit polls covering over 50 per cent of the Lok Sabha have predicted a hung House, projecting a depleted strength for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Led NDA, they added.

Index-based counters like ACC, Bharti Tele-Venture, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Lab, GACL, Grasim, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Tata Motor, RIL, SBI, Tisco, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, ICICI Bank, L&T, MTNL, HPCL and ITC were quoted sharply lower on heavy sell-off by investors.

However, HLL and HDFC were exceptionally firm in the specified list on some buying support.

Banking shares, which had witnessed consistent buying support from operators in the past several sessions, bore the brunt of selling pressure.

Among the top losers, Maha Seamless were quoted up by 9.00 per cent. D-Link by 8.57 per cent, India Cement by 8.53 per cent, Birla Corp by 8.50 per cent, Indian Bank by 8.49 per cent, Andhra Bank by 7.63 per cent, RCF by 6.61 per cent, Kochin Refinery by 6.56 per cent, Syndicate Bank by 6.44 per cent and GIPCL by 6.33 per cent.