Mumbai (PTI): Stocks: The stock market benchmark Sensex tumbled to end the week below 15,000-point mark for the first time in more than six months amid indications of high volatility in the coming days.

The market is expected to witness high volatility in the last week of March due to the expiry of derivative contract on Thursday, March 27.

In the brief week of three sessions to March 19, a string of bad news from the global market like Bear Stearns being bought by JP Morgan for a paltry sum of less than Rs 1,000 crore forced investors desert the bourses. This was despite the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates and announcements of favourable results by two US investment banks.

Bear grip was so strong that the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer, Sensex, logged its second biggest fall of over 951 points on Monday mainly on fears of more worldwide casualties due to resurgence of US credit problems.

According to dealers, buyers were unwilling to make any commitments on fears of consistent slide in share values due to unending sub-prime mortgage related problems.

The prime factor for the sluggish trend was sustained pullout by Foreign Institutional Investors from equity markets. They have pulled out nearly USD 3.5 billion in the current year so far.

The BSE barometer moved in a range of 15,465.81 and 14,677.24 before ending the week at 14,994.83, a steep fall of 765.69 points or 4.86 per cent over last weekend's close of 15,760.52. The level was earlier seen on August 29, 2007.

The 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also ended the week down by 171.85 points or 3.62 per cent to 4,573.95 from previous weekend's close of 4,745.80.

The markets closed on March 20 and 21 on account of 'Id-e-milad' and 'Good Friday' respectively.

Market watchers said the fourth quarter results, which are expected to be strong, can provide a needed lift to the stock market.

Among domestic factors, inflation would remain the biggest cause for concern with its rate being over five per cent, at which the Reserve Bank wants to limit it during the fiscal, for the third week in a row.

In the three sessions, the trading volume on the BSE was Rs 18,491 crore and Rs 42,045 crore on the NSE.

The broad-based BSE-100 index plunged by 478.22 points to end the week at 7,877.53 from last weekend's close of 8,355.75.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted lower at 1,843.03 and 757.88 at the weekend compared to their previous weekend's close of 1,962.76 and 808.36 respectively.

The BSE-500 index fell sharply by 408.03 points to finish the week at 5,852.81 from last weekend's close of 6,260.84 and the Dollex-30 ended the week down at 3,040.66 from 3,200.83 at the last weekend.

On the NSE, the S&P CNX Defty lost another 155.70 points to close the week at 3,916.65 from preceding weekend's close of 4,071.85 and the Nifty Junior dropped by 778.60 points to conclude the week at 7,431.15 from 8,209.75 at the last weekend.