Sensex drops over 860pts

The key stock market indices - the Sensex and the Nifty - dropped over 4% each during the week ended December 20 as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold heavily to meet their redemption pressure.

FIIs pulled out over Rs 5,400 crore (including Thursday's provisional figures) from the cash market, and sold shares worth Rs 2,445 crore in the futures & options segment.

The Sensex logged the second biggest fall of 769 points in absolute terms on Monday reacting negatively to the global meltdown. The Sensex finally ended the week at 19,162.57 - a net fall of 868.26 points (4.33%) from the last weekend close of 20,030.83.

The Nifty dropped 281.20 points (4.65%) to close the week at 5,766.50 as against the previous weekend close of 6,047.70.