Mumbai: The market fell sharply after mid-session and ended down by another 45 points due to fairly heavy sell-off by domestic financial institutions as well as operators coupled with a sudden slowdown in FII activity. The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index fluctuated irregularly during the first half of the session, rising to the intra-day high of 5799.92. However, selling pressure pulled the Sensex down to below 5700-level at 5699.32 before ending the day at 5713.75 as against yesterday's (Oct 5, 2004) close of 5758.67, a net fall of 44.92 points or 0.78 per cent.

Domestic funds as also operators resorted to selling in a bid to book profits at the prevailing higher price levels as a result of a dramatic slowdown by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), brokers said adding that FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 2785 crore during September and also reported net purchases of nearly Rs 500 crore on Oct 1 and 4.

Refinery and banking stocks, which were in the forefront during early stages of the trading, later met with a strong resistance as a result of selling pressure from investors.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured of a credible mechanism to deal with inflation even as oil prices eased in Asian trade but remained near record levels.

Blue chip counters including SBI, ONGC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Satyam Computers, HPCL, Grasim, Dr Reddy's Lab, ONGC, Maruti Udyog, Infosys Tech, Wipro, Ranbaxy, L&T, ITC, Hero Honda, GACL and Bajaj Auto registered sharp falls.

However, HLL, BHEL, RIL and HDFC scored impressive gains fresh buying support.