Thursday, June 2 2005 17:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A steep setback in metal shares pulled down the Sensex sharply by 74.34 points, wiping out the two-day gains and closed at 6655.56 due to heavy institutional selling on the stock exchange, Mumbai (BSE) Mumbai today (June 2, 2005).

The BSE benchmark 30-share sensitive index opened marginally better at 6733.46 as against yesterday's (June 1, 2005) close of 6729.90 and rose further to a high of 6756.62.

Thereafter, it fell steeply and after touching an intra-day low of 6647.36, settled at 6655.56, revealing a heavy loss of 1.10 per cent over the last close.

Steel counters suffered sharply on heavy offering following the decision by some of the steel majors like SAIL, Essar Steel and Ispat Industries to down steel prices with immediate effect along with firming up of US dollar, brokers said.

Besides steel, shares from most of the other segments such as IT, FMCG, Bank and Oil gas also bore the brunt of heavy selling, they added.

Reflecting the downslide in metal stocks, the sectorial BSE-Metal index tumbled by 124.05 points to close at 5354.14 from previous close of 5478.19.

Surging global crude oil prices, which shot up to above the $ 54 a barrel also made operators cautious, as they preferred to book profits at every rise, they said.

Even firm overseas advices failed to cheer up the market sentiment, a broker said.

On the Wall Street, Down Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished by 82.39 points and 19.64 points respectively last night.