Monday, August 29 2005 11:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (August 29, 2005) turned weak and dipped below 7600-mark after a promising start, on heavy selling pressure caused by soaring global oil prices that breached the 70-dollar level in Asian trade.

The sensex opened firm at 7693.00 against last Friday's close of 7680.22 but later met with strong resistance and fell sharply to a low of 7592.70 before being quoted at 7615.40 at 10.30 am, down by 64.82 points.

Discouraged by a slowdown in FIIs activity, operators and retail investors adopted a cautious approach and preferred to book profits at the prevailing higher levels in the light of a sharp spurt in global crude price.

Oil prices hit new record highs surging past US dollar 70 a barrel in Asian trading this morning.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported meagre net investments of Rs 367.30 crore in the first four days in last week while local mutual funds made net purchases of Rs 494.45 crore in the same period.

The rising oil prices will force the government to hike petrol and diesel prices at home, which in turn, is likely to affect inflation number, brokers said.

Infosys Technologies, BHEL, Maruti Udyog, Hindalco, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Tata Steel, HLL, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Satyam Computer and GACL were quoted substantially lower due to selling pressure.