Tuesday, May 10 2005 17:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (May 10, 2005) turned weak and fell by 26.64 points, arresting the six-session rising streak on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) following fresh bouts of profit-selling at higher levels.

The BSE Benchmark 30-shares sensitive index started the day slightly better at 6486.08 as against the previous close of 6481.35 and after fluctuating between 6494.91 and 6439.69, closed at 6454.71, showing a fall of 0.41 per cent over the previous close.

Describing today's fall as technical correction, brokers said in the last six-sessions the index had risen by a whopping 326.91 points or 5.31 per cent.

A large number of oil shares suffered sharply due to heavy selling on reports that public sector oil retailing firms had suffered a sharp loss of over Rs 5800 crores in the first six weeks current fiscal due to non-revision of petroleum prices in line with rise in the global oil prices which has shot up to above the $ 52 per barrel level, a broker said.

Among petro shares, BPCL, IBP, IOC, Kochin Refineries and Chennai Petro were the major losers.

Elsewhere, auto, metal and select IT shares also fell sharply on heavy offering, while, banking, cement and consumer durable segment was firm on renewed support.

The Index-based shares such as RIL, Infosys Tech, ITC, HDFC, BHEL, Dr Reddy, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, SBI, Hero Honda, L&T, Zee Tele and Maruti succumbed to heavy selling and weighed on the index.