Monday, November 21 2005 17:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (Nov 21, 2005) suffered a sharp setback and ended 76 points down in volatile trade, cutting short the six-day winning streak even as the market turned into a correction mode after a massive 1000-point upsurge in the past three weeks.

Attributing investors' negative activity to approaching expiry of derivatives contract on November 24, brokers said Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) as well as operators, which have created long positions so far in the current month, were engaged in squaring up of positions.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) fluctuated erratically in a range of 8713.10 and 8586.92 after rising past 8700 level at early stages and later ended the day at 8610.74 against Friday's close of 8686.65, a net fall of 75.91 points or 0.87 per cent.

In a strong bull run during last week, the Sensex gained by 378 points or 4.55 per cent from 8308.78 on November 9 to 8686.65 on November 18.

The Sensex had also risen by over 1000 points in a short span of 12 trading days since October 28 when it touched a low of 7685.64 after hitting an all-time record of 8799.97 on October four.

Today's setback was seen as a necessary correction to the overheated market, brokers said adding "FIIs and operators were forced to square up positions in the Futures and Options ahead of the expiry of November contract on Thursday."

Key counters like Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), Bharti Tele-Venture and HDFC Bank recorded sharp falls.