Sensex 170 points down in opening trade

Mumbai, Mar 5 (UNI) The BSE Sensex today opened softer at 12,716,85 points with a major loss of around 170 from its last close of 12,886.13, on sustained heavy selling pressure by local big operators in view of discoraging global advices.

Weakness in global markets and continued FII-sales may pull the market down further. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were down between 1.5-2.8 percent.

The market in China was the only one to evade the fall across Asian markets. The Shanghai Composite was up by 0.5 percent.

The Sensex, which has been under severe pressure in the past few days, is down over 400 points in intra day trade. Later the BSE Sensex was down by 411.82 points, to 12,471.99. It had opened weak at 12,716.85 and plunged to a low of 12,344.59 as selling intensified.

Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE was flat at 3726.50 points at the opening session. Later it recorded a low of 3568.55 in intra-day trades. The current Index is quoted lower at 3600.45 points with a major loss of 126 points from 3726.75 on the previous day's close.

L&T was the top loser, down by 5.43 percent to Rs 1385. Bhel down by 5.22 percent to Rs 1990, NTPC down by 4.63 per cent to Rs 135, and Maruti Udyog down by 4.20 percent to Rs 797.70. The other eminent losers were ACC, Cipla, Dr Reddy, Grasim, HDFC, L&T, TISCO and Wipro stocks suffered a setback on profit booking by FIIs and mutual funds.

Index heavyweight RIL was down by 2.76 per cent to Rs 1282.40 on a volume of 1.77 lakh shares, brokers said.

UNI