Mumbai: The overnight price rally proved short-lived as domestic investors resorted to across-the-board sell-off today (Oct 20, 2004), dragging the Sensex by 65 points at close, in reaction to disappointing performance by select corporate coupled with weak trend in Asian markets.

After a steady start at 5738.44, the BSE Benchmark later turned weak and gradually moved downwards to the day's low of 5662.76 before ending the day at 5673.02 against yesterday's (Oct 19, 2004) close of 5738.11, a net fall of 65.09 points or 1.13 per cent.

Operators and domestic mutual funds were heavy sellers throughout the session despite sustained FII inflows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported net investments about Rs 1800 crore in twelve trading sessions till October 18.

Attributing the cautious approach during morning trading to weak trend in Asian markets, brokers said the market later was driven lower as announcements of Q2 results by blue chip companies including Satyam Computers, Bajaj Auto, HCL Info, Polaris and Visual Software fell short of market expectations.

In the South East Asian markets, the Nikkei ended sharply lower by 182.68 points, the Hang Seng by 155.42 points and the Singapore ST by 17.23 points.

FIIs, however, reportedly made selective purchases in a few counters including GACL, BHEL and Zee Telefilms at the prevailing lower price levels.

Key counters like Satyam Computers, RIL, HPCL, Bajaj Auto ONGC, HLL, HDFC, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Grasim, REL and HDFC recorded substantial losses.