Mumbai: Share prices closed distinctly weak at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Sep 28, 2004), pushing the Sensex down by a whopping 49.20 points to end at 5462.61 due to heavy selling on the fourth successive session following weak global advices on concerns over spurting world crude oil prices.

International oil prices, which flared up to all-time highs of over $ 50 per barrel, worried market participants as it could impact ultimately on the inflation rate.

In New York, the price of light sweet crude for November delivery climbed to an all-time peak of $ 50.47 per barrel.

Negative overseas advices also partly dampened the market sentiment. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped by 58.70 points and 19.60 points respectively last night (Sep 27, 2004).

Southeast Asian markets also exhibited bearish trends at close today (Sep 28, 2004).

The drop in the Sensex could be gauged by a sharp to moderate decline in 26 out of 30 index-based scrips including heavyweights like Infosys Tech, L&T, ITC, Tata Motors, Grasim, Hero Honda, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Bharti Tele, Dr Reddy, ONGC, SBI, Satyam Computer, Tisco and Wipro.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly lower at 5506.83 as against yesterday's close of 5511.81 and touched a high of 5518.21 at early stages.

Later, continued offloading pushed the Sensex down to a low of 5454.85 before concluding at 5462.61, a sharp fall of 0.89 per cent.

Rising crude oil prices forced operators and high net worth individuals to turn cautious and book profits ahead of the end of September contract Thursday (Sep 30, 2004).