MUMBAI: After a brief break of two sessions, the hunt for the market's bottom revived in right ernest on Wednesday. As foreign funds stepped up their selling, the BSE sensex lost 513 points to close at 10,170. However, the main damage was done to the NSE's Nifty, which dipped to a 27-month low level of 3,051 and ended just a tad off that mark at 3,069. With the Dow Jones Index showing weak trend in early Wednesday trades, market players here said investors could expect another session of selling on Thursday.

On Wednesday, following a 231 points drop in the Dow and weak Asian market cues, the sensex opened 230 points lower and lost ground all through the session to close with a 4.8% loss. As a result of the across-the-board selling, investors were poorer by Rs 1.46 lakh crore, with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 31.9 lakh crore, a two-year low level.

Brokers and dealers said the selling by FIIs, on fears that the world was slipping into a long recession, was the main reason for market's slide. Provisional data released by BSE showed that FIIs had net sold stocks worth nearly Rs 550 crore. So far this year, FIIs have taken $12 billion out of the Indian market, compared to a net inflow of $17 billion during 2007.

With fresh troubles and calls for another financial sector bail out package emerging in the US, institutional dealers feel FIIs would continue to take money out of all emerging markets, including India.

Dealers are also worried about the dipping volumes. On Wednesday, BSE's total turnover was Rs 3,100 crore, much lower than the month's daily average of over 4,200 crore. The day's turnover was lowest in the last 18 months.

Wednesday's losses were led by big losses in sensex heavy weights like Reliance Inds and ICICI Bank. While ICICI Bank ended 8% down at Rs 396, RIL lost nearly 6% at Rs 1,316. Top index losers included Tata Steel, down 12% at Rs 245, Sterlite, down 10% at Rs 65 and Reliance Comm, down 9% at Rs 236.