Mumbai: Led by RIL and REL, the market beat a hasty retreat and ended sharply down by 71 points on a fresh onslaught of selling, triggered by widespread speculation that differences over "ownership issues" between the Ambani brothers have reached a flashpoint. The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index, which spurted to the day's high of 6336.90 within minutes of the resumption of trading, later turned weak and gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low of 6221.40 before ending the day at 6233.54 as against yesterday's (Dec 9, 2004) close of 6304.27, a net fall of 70.73 points or 1.12 per cent.

The market was rife with speculations that the younger Ambani brother Anil might seek legal actions to resolve the on-going matter in the Reliance group.

After the overnight price rally and a strong start this morning, stocks later succumbed to heavy selling pressure from local players which seemed to be more interested in booking profits at the prevailing price levels, brokers said.

The sentiment was also affected adversely by a slow down in FII activity during the day. FIIs reported a net investment of Rs 147.40 crore on Wednesday, relatively low inflow.

A marginal fall in inflation to 7.3 per cent for the week ended November 27, failed to have any impact on the market.

Operators as well as day-traders and retailers used the opportunity to book profits at the weekend.

RIL and REL bore the brunt of selling and finished with sharp losses. Other key losers were SBI, Tata Motors, ONGC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's, HPCL, Maruti Udyog, GACL and Grasim.