Sensex closes down by over 70 pts

Market witnessed a high level of volatility on alternate bouts of buying and selling ahead of the expiry of the derivatives contract on October 29.

Asian indices ended up between 0.06 per cent and 1.03 per cent,while European stocks too exhibited a firm trend in their early trade,despite some late profit-booking. The US stocks index future indicated higher opening.

Kotak Securities Senior Vice-President Technical Research Shrikant Chouhan said the global markets are bearish and so,the trend in the Indian market is also weak. He said: 8220;There would not be much impact of the quarterly results by corporates on the market as the sentiment is negative.8221;

The 50-issue Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also dropped 26.15 points to end at 4,970.90.

After pulling out Rs 687.40 crore on October 21 and 22,Foreign Institutional Investors FIIs sold shares worth Rs 478.8 crore last Friday,according to provisional data.

Among sectoral indices,realty index fell 4.59 per cent. Consumer durables index was another big casualty at 2.38 per cent. Bankex was down by 1.64 per cent.