Thursday, June 8 2006 11:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Global bearishness continued to grip the Indian bourses as the Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) key barometer (Sensex) tumbled by 196 points within five minutes of the opening of trading.

Heavy selling by domestic funds in the last couple of days coupled with offloading by panic-striken operators and retail investors took its toll on share values right from the onset of business, dealers said.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index once again opened sharply lower at 9,664.90 points as against yesterday's close of 9,756.76 points and dipped to 9,561.07 at 10.00 a.M., showing a steep fall of 195.69 points.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the S&P CNX Nifty also plunged by 55.50 points to 2,805.40 from previous close of 2,860.45.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index moved down further by 71.24 points and 10.98 points respectively last night. Most of the Asian markets were also traded in deep red this morning.