MUMBAI, June 2: Disappointed by an uninspiring budget, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) resorted to distress sales on Tuesday which saw the 30-share BSE sensex crash below its crucial barrier of 3,550 points.However, the timely intervention of UTI with a huge corpus of Rs 250-300 crore provided some support to the index which improved to close at 3,573.21, registering a net loss of 69.47 points over its post-budget close. With this, Sensex has fallen by 221 points after the budget. The Nifty Index nosedived by 34.15 points to close at 1,019.60 points.Marketmen attributed the negative view of FIIs after budget to the absence of any major sops for the economy coupled with the instability on the rupee front. Rumours of Moody's downgrading India on the basis of the budget saw the FIIs attempting to cut their losses in anticipation of further fall.SEBI said FII investments continued to be negative in the week ended May 29. Net FII investment during the period under review was a negative Rs 284.6crore, taking the total negative investment up to May 29 to Rs 852 crore.The market was agog with rumours that various UK and Japanese-based funds had sold huge quantities of pivotals like SBI, Reliance, Telco, Tata Tea, ITC, Bajaj Auto and MTNL. FIIs like Biktet, Stitching Fund, John Govett, Abtrust, Morgan Stanley, Schroders and Simeguersney were rumoured to have provided paper at higher levels which saw most of the pivotals, including the bank stocks, take a severe beating. "Protection for domestic industry has been at the cost of domestic consumers," said Subramanium, research head of UBS Securities.
