Friday, February 17 2006 17:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: After tottering above the 10,000 points level for a while, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark sensex plunged below the magical figure for the first time today (Feb 17 2006) to the day's low of 9,970 points on aggressive selling by funds to book profits.

Profit selling at existing higher levels drove the 30-share Sensex to close at 9,981.11, a loss of about 143.19 points as blue chip stocks such as Grasim, Larsen and Toubro, Housing Development Finance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital, Hero Honda, Tata Power, ITC Ltd. and Cipla dipped.

The Sensex-heaviest Infosys Technologies, Wipro and Bajaj Auto remained in positive mode, saving the index from a major fall.

The second wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty was also traded below 3,000 points level at 2,976.70.