New Delhi, Mar 04: Swinging between losses and gains, Indian shares saw a sharp plunge this morning for a second consecutive day leaving investors in worries.

Traders contended that despite 11 per cent fall in the stock price over three days, India's top listed firm Reliance Industries’ shares rose by 1.1 per cent. Now the share price will be 2,330 rupees on fund buying.

The declaration of a little allocation for infrastructure development in the Union Budget 2008-09 caused the stocks of Engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro by 10 per cent since Thursday and its price is expected to be 3,276 rupees.

“Investors saw value after a 6.4 percent drop in the index over the previous three sessions,” told traders.

“I can't say why the previous two days were bad in the share marke but the sentiment is lowered down just because US economy is not up to the mark and all the industries are slow. Because of the property market in the US, this problem has been created in the whole world," said Rajesh, an investor.

At 1:53 p. m., the benchmark 30-share BSE index was down by 1.31 per cent, at
-218 points. Intra-day trading saw a plunge of about 400 points.

The index dropped 5.1 percent on Monday with biggest percentage loss in six weeks.

ICICI Securities said support for the index was at 16,230-16,000 and resistance was at 16,760-16,910.

Small investors, who have been recording losses over the past few trading sessions, said that they fail to understand the logic behind the behaviour of the market.

Many investors have decided to stay away from the market till it stabilizes.

"Being an investor I cannot predict what will happen tomorrow. But, we small investors are facing losses continuously and wondering whether to invest in shares, mutual funds or fixed deposits," said R. B. Mourya, another investor.

Shares in top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp rebounded 3.1 per cent to 2,651.10 rupees after falling more than 8 per cent on Monday.

Traders said the market sentiment was likely to remain weak on sustained selling by foreigners, who have been net sellers worth more than 3 billion dollars so far this year.

In the broader market, 1,462 losers were ahead of 653 gainers on volume of 52 million shares. The broader 50-share NSE index was up 0.17 per cent at 4,961.35.

Elsewhere in the region, Karachi's 100-Share index rose 0.18 per cent to 14,843.24 points, and Colombo's All-Share index gained 0.74 per cent to 2,552.20 points. (ANI)