Mumbai: The sensex slumped by 91.86 points to close at a one-month low of 4644.00 at the stock exchange today (June 23, 2004), pulled down by sustained heavy selling in key heavy weighted counters, stretching losses to the fourth straight session amidst bearish sentiments ruling the market.

Stale bull liquidation ahead of expiry of June contract on Thursday also impacted negatively on the market, dealers said, adding that there are no triggers to push up prices until the presentation of Union Budget on July 8.

The volume of business improved somewhat but the undertone remained sluggish.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly better at 4742.80 as against yesterday's close of 4735.86 and immediately touched a high of 4752.47. Later, it met with strong resistance and dipped to a low of 4635.17 before concluding at 4644.00, a net fall of 1.94 per cent.

Petro-chem giant and top heavyweight, RIL, suffered a sharp setback on heavy offloading by local institutions and was major contributor to the sensex's sharp decline.

Other index-based stocks like SBI, ITC, Infosys Tech, Tata Motors, Tisco, BHEL, Grasim, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, HPCL, Hindalco, MUL, ONGC, Satyam Computer, Tata Power, Wipro and Zee Telefilms also ended with sharp to moderate losses, partly aiding the slide of the benchmark.

The main market movers, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) slowed down their activity in the absence of any positive news, forcing operators to keep a low profile.