Saturday, February 4 2006 12:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex scaled yet another new peak at 9,993.92 during the week under review but shied away from the 10K psychological mark even as the week ended with a loss of 1.3 per cent on heavy unloading by operators alternated by good Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) inflows.

In the week to February 4, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (sensex) rallied smartly to an all-time intra-day high of 9,993.92 on Wednesday but later fell back to end the week at 9,742.58 against last weekend's close of 9,870.79, a net fall of 128.21 points.

The Sensex was expected to hit the magic level during midweek but bulls prevented it by booking heavy profits when it neared this level.

Despite fairly heavy inflows, operators as well as retail investors preferred to book profits after indices touched the dizzy heights. Initially, FII absorbed the sales made by local players.

Bank shares bore the brunt of investors' wrath and the losses in the sector could be gauged by a whopping fall of 303 points or 5.71 per cent in the Bankex, which ended the week at 5,002.48 from last weekend's close of 5,305.67.

Small-cap stocks too were at the receiving end due to across-the-board profit booking by investors in the segment. As a result, the BSE Small-Cap Index tumbled by 326.59 points or 5.12 per cent to end the week at 6,053.67 from previous weekend's close of 6,380.26.

FIIs reported net investments of Rs 1,089.5 crore in three days after their withdrawals of Rs 348 crore on January 30.