The real mandi — the Sensex — meanwhile, plunged by over 458 points on aggressive selling by funds following weakening global trends. The Sensex, after a lower start, fell further to post a loss of 458.06 points at 17,617.60. It touched the day’s low of 17,505.56 and a high of 17,991.29 points.

But, the rupee crossed the 40-mark for the first time in five months when it dwindled by 29 paise today against the dollar. In brisk activity at the Inter-Bank Foreign Exchange market the local currency touched a low of 40.24 a dollar after resuming weak at 39.95/97 a dollar.