Tuesday, January 10 2006 18:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: In high volatile trading, the sensex today (Jan 10, 2006) continued its downward journey and plunged by 138.15 points to close at 9445.30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) due to heavy selling spree.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex), which had scaled yet another all-time high of 9,689.68 yesterday, opened marginally higher at 9584.47 as against yesterday's close of 9583.45 and after moving in a wide range of 9600.08 and 9418.63, ended at 9445.30, showing a steep fall of 138.15 points or 1.44 per cent over the previous close.

Domestic mutual funds and operators were believed to be heavy sellers in several blue chip stocks ahead of the third quarter results to be declared by several blue chip companies during the week.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) which had pumped in a massive Rs 2287.50 crores in the previous week, were continued buyers on the back of strong economic fundamentals.

Subdued trend in select Asian markets and closure of local market tomorrow for Id-ul-Zuha also dampened the market sentiment to a large extend. In the South Eastern Asian markets, Nikkie dropped by 303.86 points, Taiwan by 34.94 points and Kospi by 12.04 points.

Among the major losers, RIL, Infosys Tech, SBI, Satyam, Grasim, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, HLL, Bharti Tele, Dr Reddy, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, TCS, L&T, Maruti, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, ACC, REL, ICICI Bank and Tata Power were prominent.