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Mumbai, Jan. 16 With foreign institutional investors continuing to press the ‘sale’ button and general negative sentiment worldwide, equity values continued to slide in the domestic market. The BSE benchmark index Sensex slipped below the 20K mark for the first time this month to close at 19,868.11, down 382 points.

“Selling was witnessed across the board as there was not much support from investors, both institutional and retail,” said Ms Shahina Mukadam, Head-Research, IDBI Capital Markets Ltd.

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,517.59 crore and domestic institutions were net buyers for Rs 188.97 crore.

A section of the marketmen said that the market was in ‘correction’ mode with players booking profits.

The market breadth was negative with 2,207 stocks declining and 615 stocks advancing.

Among the sectoral indices, all of which closed in red, BSE-Realty was the biggest loser as it shed 4.44 per cent, BSE-Power followed by losing 3.67 per cent.

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