Thursday, March 17 2005 17:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Soaring crude prices and negative FII activity today (March 17, 2005) sent the Sensex tumbling down by 77 points during the last one hour on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) even as global markets also witnessed a meltdown.

Despite a pledge by the OPEC cartel to increase the production, international oil prices touched a record closing high of $ 56.46 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday (March 16, 2005) and hit an all-time high of $ 56.69 during morning Asian trade.

In a dramatic slowdown in activity, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported net sales of Rs 46.10 crore on March 15 after pumping in massive funds in February and during the post-budget fortnight.

Extending its losing string to fifth-day in a row, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 6719.11 and later reeled under sustained sell-off and dropped to the intra-day low of 6640.88 before ending the day at 6669.52 as against yesterday's close of 6746.88, a net fall of 77.36 points or 1.15 per cent.

The Sensex has fallen by over 238 points or 3.45 per cent in the five trading sessions since March 11.

Operators, which were having long outstanding positions, continued to wind up their holdings in the Futures and Options segment following concerns over rising global oil prices.

Blue chip counters like RIL, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Zee Telefilms, Grasim, HDFC Bank, HPCL, BHEL, GACL, Hero Honda, Hindalco and Maruti Udyog recorded sharp losses on heavy selling pressure from operators and retailers.