Monday, August 22 2005 16:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (August 22, 2005) surrendered early gains as a large number of heavyweight shares met with profit-selling at higher level and the index fell by 30.16 points to close at 7750.60 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), extending losses for the third straight session.

The index had fallen by 108.93 points or 1.39 per cent since last Thrusday.

The BSE benchmark 30-share sensitive index opened firm at 7814.93 as against the previous close of 7780.76 and rose further to a high of 7846.02. Thereafter, it fell sharply and after touching a low of 7711.18, closed at 7750.60, showing a fall of 0.39 pct over the last close.

ONGC fell sharply by Rs 10.70 to close at Rs 990.40 from the last close of Rs 1001.10 on heavy selling after the Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram's statement that the oil companies would incur a loss of Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 crore during this fiscal, if the present trend of spiralling crude oil prices continued for some more months, brokers said.

Market sentiment was dampened during the midsession as operators and retail investors resorted to heavy selling ahead of the expiry of the Future and Option segment on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Foreign Insitutional Investors (FIIs) and domestic Mutual Funds (MF) continued their buying spree in the previous week-ended August 19 as FIIs bought equities worth Rs 495.9 crore and MF Rs 285.23 crore.

Prices in oil and gas, bank, metal and auto segments sufferd the most on heavy offering, while select IT, health care and small-cap shares attracted good support and closed firm.