Sustained selling drive by the foreign institutional investors (FII) and an aggressive interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank (RBI) coupled with worries over corporate profit pulled down the BSE benchmark Sensex by another 617 points during the week.

Metal, Realty, Auto, Banking, FMCG, Consumer Durable and PSU sectors were the major losers from the Sensex pack.

All indices finished with sharp to moderate losses in the range of 5.11-1.43 per cent.

FII outflow in May 2011, totalled Rs 2,135 crore, till 4th May 2011. Mutual funds sold shares worth net Rs 78.40 crore in May 2011, till 5th May 2011.

The RBI raised its key short term lending rates by higher-than-expected 50 basis points (bps) and also lowered the baseline economic growth forecast for the current year.

The BSE Sensex declined by 617.15 points, or 3.23 per cent to end the week 18,518.81.

The S&P CNX Nifty also dropped by 198.05 points, or 3.44 per cent to 5,551.45.

The BSE Mid-Cap index declined by 3.25 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index moved down by 4.28 per cent.

The market recovered marginally at the fag-end of the week in view of sharp slide in crude oil prices, which eased macroeconomic worries and bargain hunting emerged after the recent market decline.

Meanwhile, food inflation fell to 8.53 per cent for the week ended 23rd April, on the back of fall in prices of pulses, reversing the upward trend seen in the previous fortnight.

From the Sensex pack, 27 stocks declined while only three of them managed to end in green for the week ended 7th May.

Among the major indices, the BSE Metal index fell by 5.11 pc followed by BSE Realty index, which fell by 3.90 pc.

The BSE Auto shed 3.57 pc, the Bankex declined by 3.1 per cent, the BSE FMCG by 3.00 pc, the BSE Consumer Durable by 2.79 pct, the BSE PSU by 2.78 pc and the BSE Power by 2.75 pc.

Telecom pivotals declined after poor earnings from sector bellwether Bharti Airtel.

India’s largest listed cellular services provider by sales Bharti Airtel declined 7.40 per cent after consolidated net profit as per International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) declined 31.48 per cent.

India’s second largest listed cellular services provider by sales Reliance Communications lost 10.02 per cent to Rs 89.80 and was the top loser from the Sensex pack.

Other losers from the sensex pack were Bajaj Auto (9.83 pc), Sterlite (8.44 pc), REL Infra (7.80 pc), Jaiprakash Ind (6.69 pc), Hidnalco (6.47 pc), Tata Power (5.79 pc), SBI (5.80 pc), HDFC (5.77 pc), M&M (5.47 pc), ITC (4.43 pc), NTPC (3.87 pc) and HUL (3.68 pc).

Total turnover of BSE and NSE fell to Rs 14,379.22 crore and Rs 57,502.50 crore as against the previous week level of Rs 15,186.37 crore and Rs 63,045.24 crore, respectively.