Wednesday, February 16 2005 17:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Early price rally was short lived and the market crashed by 133 from the day's high of 6714.13 in a dramatic negative turn on heavy sell-off in the last one-hour, triggered by a stiff opposition to banking reforms.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index, however, recovered at the fag end from its intra-day low of 6580.97 and finished the day at 6607.78 as against yesterday's close of 6670.06, a net fall of 62.28 points or 0.93 per cent.

The Left parties have charged the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government with deliberately meddling with the independent role of the Reserve Bank of India in fixing norms on FDI and voting rights.

Discounting reports that a leading domestic institution Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is likely to step up its market exposure as well as increased FII inflows, operators and retailers pressed heavy sales during the last one-hour of trading with the budget a few days away.

According to reports, LIC is likely to increase its market exposure to ten per cent of its investible funds from its current 7-8 per cent. FII reported a hefty net investments of Rs 834.20 crore on February 14.

Brokers said operators already have high positions and preferred to wind up part of their holdings in the run up to the budget in view of confusing signals emanating from some political parties supporting the Government.

Key blue chip counters like HLL, RIL, Tata Motors, Satyam Computers, ONGC, REL, HPCL, Grasim, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Udyog, ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Tele-Venture and ACC recorded sharp losses due to selling pressure.

However, L&T, BHEL, SBI, Tata Steel and Hindalco showed marked gains on some buying support.