Wednesday, January 18 2006 10:58 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (Jan 18,2006) crashed by over 100 points in early trade after the special one-hour trading session for demerged RIL's price discovery due to selling triggered by a global meltdown.

Investors, however, expressed surprise over the initial 100-point fall in the Sensex as it did not seem to be in keeping with losses in the index-based counters.

The Nifty also was quoted down by over 90 points but it was reportedly due to error in Nifty calculations.

The Sensex opened below 9,300-level at 9,293.80 against yesterday's (Jan 17,2006)close of 9,314.13 and later fell sharply to a low of 9,202.68 before being quoted at 9,208.68, down by 105.45 points from previous close.

On the BSE, RIL was quoted at Rs 702.20 at 10.30 am against its official closing price of Rs 713.95 in the special trading session this morning.

Grasim, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, Infosys Technologies, Reliance Energies Limited (REL), Maruti Udyog, State Bank of India (SBI), Tata Motors and Cipla were quoted down due to selling pressure.

Meanwhile, the Nikkei was quoted down by over 600 points, the Hang Seng by over 100 points, Singapore ST by 20 points and Taiwan by 200 points during morning trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index also were down by 63.55 points and 14.55 points last night respectively.