Friday, June 10 2005 17:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A late bout of hectic profit-taking today (Jun 10, 2005) drove the Sensex down by another 50.54 points to close at 6781.99 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after an early surge to 6883.67 could not be maintained due to nervous selling ahead of the weekend.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened marginally higher at 6833.58 as against yesterday's close of 6832.53 and soon rallied to a high of 6883.67.

Later, it fell sharply to an intra-day low of 6774.14 on heavy selling and closed at 6781.99 showing a loss of 0.74 pc over the last close.

However, rise in Reliance Industries minimised the Sensex fall to a large extent, a broker said.

The index-heavyweight RIL rose by Rs 7.75 or 1.39 per cent to Rs 566.75 on good buying activity following the news of a progress in negotiations for a settlement between the two Ambani brothers over Reliance group's ownership issues, he said.

Meanwhile, the global rating agency Standard and Poor's has cautioned that RIL's business and financial profiles could weaken materially if the settlement involves substantial cash payments by RIL, another brokers said.

Fall in inflation which dropped to a two-month low of 5.20 per cent during the week ended May 28 was ignored by the market-men.

Rise in New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July by 18 cents to $54.46 per barrel also dampened the market sentiment, brokers added.