Mumbai: The sensex began the week with another crash of 414 points even as the Congress assured last weekend that the process of economic reforms would be carried forward.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 5020.89 as against last Friday's (May 14, 2004) close of 5069.87 and later crumbled to 4689.37 within 15 minutes.

After the sensex crashed by over 553 points or 10 per cent to 4516.58, the BSE on-line trading system stopped working and no transactions were reported after 10.20 hrs (IST).

The BOLT system is expected to start again at 11.17 hrs (IST).

Attributing the unprecedented stocks crash to the delay in the announcement of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) by the Congress and its allies, brokers said investors were not at all willing to hold their positions fearing reversal in the reforms process.