Thursday, July 7 2005 16:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (July 7, 2005) plunged by a whopping 142.47 points to 7145.13 on a virtual sell-off in knee-jerk reaction to several explosions across London that sent global indices into a tailspin.

The market witnessed the biggest fall in a single session since April 15, when the Sensex had crashed by 219.58 points.

Stock values that already were overstretched, initially underwent a mild downward correction before news of multiple explosions rocking London drove the benchmark to abysmal lows on stop-loss sales, in line with global trends.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had been consistent net buyers in the past couple of weeks, resorted to heavy sell-off in the last one hour.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 7281.07 and gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low of 7123.11 before ending the day at 7145.13 as against yesterday's close of 7287.60, a net fall of 142.47 points or 1.95 per cent.

Several explosions rocked London subway and ripped through three buses in the city, injuring unspecified number of people and prompting authorities to shut down the entire underground network as the G-8 summit of the world's richest nations was underway in Scotland.

Meanwhile, world oil prices hit historic high, surging past $61 a barrel in New York and $60 in London.

The FTSE index was down by about 159 points, The DAX by 139.73 points and the CAC by 125 points during early trade.

Hedge funds reportedly made all-round sales after the news of explosions in London.