Mumbai: The market snapped three-day winning streak and closed with a moderate fall of 18 points in an otherwise erratic and narrow movements even as investors discounted a marginal fall in inflation rate to 7.94 per cent.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 5147.86 and later fluctuated irregularly in a range of 5148.75 and 5094.56 before ending the day at 5117.01 from yesterday's (Aug 26, 2004) close of 5135.45, a net loss of 18.44 points or 0.36 per cent.

Auto sector led the negative reaction in stocks with Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) pressing sales in Tata Motors, Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto, MUL and others.

Operators and retail investors which were expected to make fresh commitments on the first day of September contract in derivatives, maintained low profile following a sell-off by Foreign funds which were net sellers in the initial four sessions of the week.

Attributing weak trend to FII negative activity, brokers said the market failed to pick up despite prediction by analysts of a further fall in inflation in the coming week in line with easing global crude prices.

However, the negative impact of selling was mitigated by a smart rally in blue chip counters like HPCL, HDFC, Bharti Tele-Venture, Infosys Tech, ONGC, MTNL and Ranbaxy.

RIL, SBI, REL, Tisco, Wipro, ITC, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, GACL, BHEL, Cipla, Bajaj Auto, Tisco and ACC registered marked losses.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index yesterday finished modestly down by 8.33 points and 7.80 points respectively.