Wednesday, May 18 2005 17:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Stocks today (May 18, 2005) suffered a fresh setback pulling the Sensex down by 19 points for the second day in a row in a range-bound trade on sustained selling amid fears of stern action against more Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) involved in the misuse of Participatory Notes (PN) route.

The market lacked support from investors even as the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) ruled out banning FIIs from issuing Participatory Notes (PNs) in the backdrop of an overnight ban on a leading FII UBS Securities Asia Ltd for not complying with regulations.

The market regulator banned UBS from issuing PNs for a year and also prohibited UBS its associates from renewing or rolling over any off-shore derivative instruments (ODIs) already issued against the positions held in the Indian securities market for one year.

Besides UBS, SEBI was probing 11 more entities for possible involvement in 'Black Monday' market crash.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 6457.37 and later dropped below 6400-level to the intra-day low of 6380.53 before settling at 6447.00 as against yesterday's close of 6466.00, a net loss of 19.00 points or 0.29 per cent.

FIIs were believed to be continued sellers in blue chip counters with operators and retailers booking profits at the prevailing price levels. FIIs reported net sales of Rs 188.30 crore on Monday.

However, domestic funds, which reported net investments of Rs 374.53 crore on the same day, made fresh purchases in a number of mid-cap stocks and select heavyweighted counters.