Mumbai, Oct 16 (PTI) The liquidity booster of Rs 65,000 crore announced by the government and RBI failed to enthuse the stock market today as the benchmark Sensex crashed by 658 points in opening trade on increased capital outflows by foreign funds triggered by weak global cues. The 30-share index, which had lost nearly 674.28 points in yesterday's trading, fell by a whopping 658.52 points, or nearly six per cent at 10,150.54, a level last seen in June, 2006, due to heavy sell-off by foreign funds in the stocks of banking, metals, capital goods, oil and gas and power sectors. The National Stock Exchange index Nifty tumbled by 194.60 points, or 5.82 per cent to 3,143.80 with all the heavy-weight stocks trading in the negative zone. In a bid to further ease liquidity position, Reserve Bank yesterday announced another 100 basis points cut in CRR, which would release Rs 40,000 crore in the cash-starved banking system. Besides, Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday announced to provide first installment of farm debt waiver of worth Rs 25,000 crore to the RBI to be distributed among commercial banks and financial institutions. However, series of measures taken to ease pressure on the financial sector has failed to enthuse the market, traders said. Marketmen said apart from sharp losses in the global stock markets, depreciating Indian rupee against the US dollar too dampened the trading sentiments here. The Indian rupee fell by 52 paisa to 49.04 against the US dollar in opening trade on the Forex market today. ICICI Bank, largest lender in the private sector, plunged by Rs 18.20, or 4.39 per cent at Rs 396, while state-run State Bank of India lost Rs 31.10, or 2.08 per cent at Rs 1,466 despite cut in CRR by the central bank. Other stocks which also dragged the BSE barometer down are Reliance Industries fell six per cent, Larsen and Toubro down 6.54 per cent, BHEL by 5.69 per cent, Tata Steel shed 5.65 per cent, Reliance Infra down 9.48 per cent, HDFC Bank 5.74 per cent, Infosys Technologies lost 4.98 per cent, Satyam Computers by 3.82 per cent and Tata Consultancy by 7.48 per cent and Wipro by 6.45 per cent. Meanwhile, the US Dow Jones Industrial average fell by 7.87 per cent and London's FTSE lsot 7.16 per cent last evening, while Japan's Nikkei was down by 9.55 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 7.68 per cent and Shanghai Index shed 3.79 per cent in early trade today. PTI

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