Thursday, October 13 2005 11:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Despite encouraging performance by IT majors Infosys Technologies and TCS Ltd, the Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex) today (Oct 13, 2005) crashed by 112 points within minutes of trading on a fresh onslaught of selling pressure from operators.

However, the sensex recovered smartly on fairly good buying support from institutional investors.

The sensex opened weak at 8520.48 as against Tuesday's (Oct 11, 2005) close of 8540.56 and later dropped sharply to a low of 8428.10 before being quoted at 8498.99 at 10.30 am, down by 41.57 points over previous close.

Bear operators were believed to be heavy sellers during early trade even as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly were net buyers in first two days of the week on the back of better-than-expected second quarter results announcement by Infosys Technologies and TCS Ltd coupled with increase in the full-year guidance of both the companies.

Brokers, however, expected the market stage a recovery during the latter part of the session on sustained FII inflows and emergence buying support from retail investors.

Infosys Tech was quoted substantially lower from last close while TCS Ltd showed moderate gains.