Mumbai: Share values opened lower and drifted further downwards extending overnight losses at initial stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 7 following sustained selling by operators as well as institutional investors.

The BSE-30 share Sensitive Index resumed weak at 3182.16 and dipped further to a low of 3159.09 before being quoted at 3160.19 at 11:00 hours (IST) as against the March 6 close of 3190.35.

After being down for the last four successive sessions on lingering geo-political concerns, the news that the Maharashtra government has hiked the stamp duty on non- delivery deals by 500 per cent from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000 per Rs 1 crore transaction effective from April 1, unnerved market operators.

According to marketmen, cash and derivative segments contributed nearly 85 per cent of the daily turnover which is going to be plunge due to a steep rise in stamp duty and as a result the day trading will become more expensive, affecting the volume very badly.

Majority of IT counters continued their Southward march on heavy offloading by speculators as well as foreign funds.

Meanwhile, after a modest recovery on March 5, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite Index eased by 101.61 points and 11.51 points respectively on March 6.

PTI