Saturday, October 8 2005 15:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The stock market entered into a consolidation mode after an early upsurge to a new peak of 8821.84, correcting by 330 points in a highly volatile trade in the week under review as Foreign Institutional investors Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) made a hefty withdrawal igniting all-round sell-off.

The sentiment was dampened by weak global trend following heavy sales in major world markets on fears of further U.S. interest rate hike after the recent inflation figures.

In the week to October 8, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) saw a hefty intra-trade correction of 330 points, tumbling from the week's high of 8821.84, an all-time intra-day record high, to end the week at 8491.56 against last weekend's close of 8634.48, a net fall of 142.92 points or 1.66 per cent over the preceding week.

The relatively moderate setback after the recent massive bull charge since September one, was seen by investors as a healthy correction to the overextended gains. The market had risen by over 1000 points between September one and October 4.

FIIs, which have pumped in over Rs 37,000 crore in equity in the nine months of the calendar year, reported net sales of Rs 211 crore in cash and Rs 1762 crore in futures during the first four days of the week, inducing operators and retail investors to book profits at higher levels.

Domestic mutual funds too have slowed down activity after their consistent net purchases during the last month.

Global markets played a major role in pulling the Sensex into a correction mode. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped by 282 points and 69 points respectively in the week.

Meanwhile, the market was supported by strong economic fundamentals. The economy grew by 8.1 per cent during first quarter of this fiscal backed by a robust growth in industry and services sectors.

The economy is also expected to register 7.3 per cent growth in 2005-06.

However, the market trend might depend on FII activity even as investors anticipate improved corporate earnings for the second quarter.

Among other indices, the broad-based BSE-100 Index fell back by 54.60 points to end the week at 4,512.03 from last weekend's close of 4,566.63.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted sharply down at 1,086.48 and 408.14 at the weekend compared to previous weekend's close of 1,098.02 and 415.57 respectively.

The BSE-500 Index dropped by 32.05 points to finish the week at 3,489.78 from preceding weekend's close of 3,521.83 and the Dollex-30 ended the week sharply lower at 1,573.01 from 1,611.48 at the last weekend.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the S&P CNX Nifty and the S&P CNX Defty dipped by 27.35 points and 34.80 points to close the week at 2,574.05 and 2,014.25 as against last weekend's close of 2,601.40 and 2,049.05 respectively.

The CNX Nifty Junior moved down by 49.75 points to conclude the week at 5,253.75 from 5,303.50 at the preceding weekend.

During the week, the volume of business on the BSE was relatively low at Rs 17,573 crore compared to last week's turnover of Rs 18,721 crore while the volume on NSE spurted to Rs 32,067 crore from Rs 30,981 crore in the last week.