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Sensex falls 67.78 points

The market opened slightly lower due to panic in the forex market on the statement issued by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan.

The first and second round of meeting of Congress Working Committee which adjourned without taking any final decision on the present political situation, demoralised the investors as they expected an early end to the crisis.

Reflecting downtrend, the BSE Sensitive Index (30 scrips) opened at 3616.47 points and after remaining at same level for quiet some time, it dropped below 3500 mark and closed at 3560.29 points, suffering a loss of 67.78 points as against the previous close of 3628.07 points.

Congress member Mamta Banerjee, on the reconvening of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, has demanded a no-confidence motion notice against the Gujral government which also pushed down the equity prices in the country's premier bourse.

The stock prices in the Hong Kong market declined on news that a major local developer slashed the sales prices of a luxury housing project.

Almost all the constituents of the United Front have resolved not to extend their support to the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party in case they stake their claim to form the government at the Centre.

The broadbased BSE National Index (100 scrips) finished at 1543.10 points over the last trading day's close of 1572.28 points losing 29.18 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices declined by Rs 06.79 and 03.32 points to 346.91 and 149.75 points as compared to yesterday's closing of 353.70 and 153.07 points respectively.

The total turnover was Rs 10.2 billion involving 37.4 million shares. ITC continued having the highest turnover at Rs 4.1 billion followed by SBI Rs 1.8 billion, Reliance Industries Rs 1 billion, Tata Tea Rs 885.1 million, Castrol India Rs 883.7 million, MTNL Rs 257.2 million, ACC Rs 191.6 million, TISCO Rs 168.9 million, TELCO 167.3 million, Hind Lever Rs 160.6 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 153.9 million, BHEL Rs 94.8 million, Colgate Rs 71.2 million, Hindalco Rs 56.5 million and GE Shipping Rs 49.8 million in the specified counters.

Good transactions were witnessed at Nicholas Pir Rs 30.7 million, Satyam Comp Rs 26.2 million, Infosys Tech Rs 21.5, Bharat Bijlee Rs 14.9 million, Sun Pharma Rs 13.8 million, Credit Rati Rs 11.7 million, Hoech Mar Ro Rs 11.4 million, Videsh Sanchar Rs 10.4 million in the non-specified counters.

UNI