After the cautious trading on Monday's `Moorat' session when Sensex gained by five points, bears today tightened their grip, sending several leading scrips below the 52-week low levels. The S&P NCX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange fell to 808.70, showing a loss of 22.55 over the previous close of 831.25.

The previous 52-week low level was 2785.41 recorded on October 13. With the bearish sentiment continuing to play havoc, marketmen fear that Sensex would soon fall below the three-year low of 2713.12 registered on December 4, 1996. Sensex has lost 340 points in October so far, mainly due to the problems related to the Unit Trust of India and selling by FIIs.

FIIsoffloaded shares like Reliance, Telco, Tisco, Satyam Computers, ACC and others. FIIs have sold shares worth $ 131.1 million from the Indian markets in October so far. ``Foreign funds as well as operators were both sellers today with the market still bearish on UTI. If UTI increases the repurchase price of US-64, then there will be repurchase pressure on UTI and with very less sales in US-64, trouble will shoot up again. This will lead to further pressure on the markets,'' said Milind Karmarkar of Dalal and Broacha.

Operators were not willing to keep their position pending in view of the holidays on Wednesday and Thursday -- on account of `Diwali' (Balipratipada) and `Bhaubeej' respectively -- and preferred to square up the commitments. The downtrend in Telco continued on expectations of poor performance for the current year.

Reliance, favourite of retail investors, touched the Rs 100 mark during the mid-session. It closed at a 52-week low of Rs 101.90. Bears who had a free time with a strong grip on themarket were supported by foreign funds pressing fresh sales. ``The negative factor was the continuing nervousness over the UTI crisis even after repeated assurances by the government of its support to the UTI and fresh reports about the finance ministry's efforts to help the institution to get enough liquidity to take care of redemptions,'' said a broker.

``The general sentiment is weak...many of the Tata group shares are quoting at all-time lows. What is more pronounced is the complete absence of buyers from the markets. One can only see sellers in the market and whatever trades that take place are hammering down the prices,'' he said.

Domestic institutions failed to come to the rescue of the markets. ``Sensex has penetrated the baseline of the triangle and has remained there for the past three weeks. If this trend continues for one more week then it is possible that the Sensex will find the next support level at 2,609 levels. But initially the Sensex will test the level of 2,700,'' said Parag Dalvi,manager institutional sales at Pranav Securities.

Satyam Computers remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 276.74 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 1131.83 crore on the BSE. Among the pivotals, Satyam Computer lost Rs 15.25 at Rs 535.75, ITC Rs 14 at Rs 675, Reliance Rs 3.90 at Rs 101.90, SBI Rs 4.90 at Rs 152.50, Pentafour Software Rs 36.25 at Rs 608 and Hindustan Lever Rs 55.75 at Rs 1651.50. Zee Telefilms, however, gained Rs 20.75 at Rs 624.75 on short covering.