Tuesday, August 23 2005 16:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After a promising start, the stocks market went into a tailspin today (Aug 23, 2005) and ended 135 points down at 7615.99, extending its losses to fourth straight session, due to heavy selling pressure from operators and institutional investors ahead of expiry of August contract.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened better at 7764.86 but later turned weak and dropped to the day's low of 7601.34 before ending the day at 7615.99 against yesterday's close of 7750.60, a net fall of 134.61 points or 1.74 per cent.

The market is expected to consolidate at current level with a couple of leading Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly putting India on sales considering the inflated outstanding positions, brokers said.

FIIs as well as domestic mutual funds were believed to be heavy sellers in a number of counters while operators confined their activity to unwinding of long outstanding positions in derivatives ahead of expiry of August contract.

The sentiment was adversely affected on indications that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) were taking steps to check sustained upsurge in the Sensex.

FIIs reported net sales of Rs 77.10 crore on August 19.

FIIs have pumped in about US dollar 7.4 billion (approx Rs 32,000 crore) in Indian equity in 2005 so far.

Fresh sell-off was also attributed to another likely hike in petrol and diesel prices.

Heavyweights like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Infosys Tech, ICICI Bank, Ranbaxy, State Bank of India (SBI), ONGC, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Satyam Computer, Larsen and Turbo (L&T) and Dr Reddy's recorded sharp falls.