Mumbai: Political uncertainties sent the benchmark index hurtling down by a massive 229.94 points to close at a five-month low of 5,325.90 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (May 11, 2004), pulled down by frenzied selling across the spectrum after nervousness gripped the market on fears that the ongoing reforms process will take a backseat.

In the biggest single day decline in the past 45 months, the overall BSE market capitalisation loss amounted to Rs 54,550 crore.

Relentless selling across the board was further aggravated by nervous operators who offloaded heavily on news of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) suffering a major setback in Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.

The BSE-30 sensitive index opened with a wide downside gap at 5,472.03 as against overnight close of 5,555.84 and crashed to a low of 5,309.42, before ending at 5,325.90, a mind boggling fall of 4.14 per cent.

The BSE index had last tumbled by a large margin of 275.23 and closed at 4,188.34 on July 24, 2000.