Monday, January 9 2006 20:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The stock market today (Jan 9, 2006) adjusted to a downward correction after touching a new peak at 9,689.68 as the Sensex fluctuated wildly at the fag end on aggressive selling alternated by fresh Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) purchases.

In an otherwise dull trade throughout, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) turned volatile and moved between 9,612.94 and 9,539.63 in the concluding 15 minutes before ending the day at 9,583.45 against Friday's close of 9,640.29, a net fall of 56.84 points or 0.59 per cent.

Domestic mutual funds and operators were believed to be heavy sellers in several blue chip stocks including Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Satyam Computers, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and others while FII were continued buyers on the back of strong economic fundamentals.

FIIs had pumped in a massive Rs 1,943 crore in initial four days of the last week after their record investments in a single calendar year.

Terming the negative reaction as a necessary technical correction, brokers said the market is expected to correct downwards by 100 to 150 points before any fresh price rally.

Meanwhile, the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (sebi) has asked the National Stock Exchange and the BSE to impose a circuit filter of 50 per cent on the first day of the listing of IPOs.

The market also discounted reports that the Petroleum Ministry is working on a fresh blueprint to re-structure the oil and gas PSUs under its fold.