Monday, January 16 2006 11:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) continued its slide and today (Jan 16,2006) was quoted down by 24 points during morning trading as the top heavyweight Reliance Industries suffered a sharp setback due to heavy selling pressure.

Market participants were seen squaring up positions in RIL and its group companies ahead of a special trading session on January 18 for price discovery of RIL before the demerger of the company, brokers said.

Reflecting a fall in RIL, the Sensex dipped sharply to a low of 9,324.85 after rising to 9,397.62 in minutes of resumption of trading and was quoted at 9,349.94 at 10.30 am, down by 24.25 points from previous close.

The sentiment was also affected by negative Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) activity during last week.

FII were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,031 crore on January 10 and 12 while domestic funds reported net sales of Rs 797 crore in the initial three days of last week.

Brokers, however, expected a turnaround in the market sentiment after midweek.