The markets declined for the fifth straight session on Friday with the benchmark Sensex dropping over 340 points to close below 17,000 level as record high oil prices and rising inflation unnerved investors.

The 30-share Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange ended the day at 16,737, a loss of 344 points from its previous close.

The BSE barometer has shed 863 points during the week. The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 99 points to close at 4,982.60.

Traders said worries the government would arm-twist companies to cut prices to tame inflation undermined sentiment in the broader market, where losing stocks outnumbered gainers by almost three to one.

Selling pressure

According to marketmen, rising crude oil prices was the other key factor behind Friday’s sharp slide. Global oil prices hit yet another fresh record high at $124.73 a barrel in European trade on Friday.
With selling pressure spilling over a wide front, all sectoral indices, barring FMCG index, closed lower. FMCG sector index was marginally better.

The trading volume rose to Rs 6,594.69 crore from Rs 5,965.87 crore on Thursday. The broad-based BSE-100 index tumbled by another 211.88 points to 8,865.05 from its previous close of 9,076.93.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted down at 2,081.88 and 832.50 at close compared to their last close of 2,132.10 and 850.84 respectively. The BSE-500 index dropped by 159.30 points to 6,653.45 from 6,812.75 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 3,300.38 from 3,361.26.