mumbai the bse sensex reversed its twosession winning streak with a 441point slide to settle at 18008 a new fivemonth closing low however net buying by foreign and domestic investors during fridays session raised hopes among dalal street players that the market could be close to finding its bottom around the 18k mark at least for the shortterm although selling was across the board real estate fmcg and software stocks were the worst affected sectors capital goods and psu stocks too closed in the red but comparatively they were the least affected in fridays late panic sellinginvestor sentiment on friday was also affected by wild rumours including the one that south indiabased dmk party a major coalition partner in the ruling upa government was considering pulling out of the congressled alliance at the centre of late most indices have been sliding because of rising inflation hike in interest rates tight liquidity situation fears of lower corporate profitability rising crude oil prices political crisis at the centre and global uncertaintieson friday reliance industries which has the highest weight in the sensex lost 25 to close at rs 920 on reports that the company might be forced to get into a bidding war for its us assets earlier this week the stock had recently fallen below the rs 900mark as the sensex dipped below the 18kmarkalthough speculators and retail investors pressed the panic button fiis and domestic institutions diis bought in the cash segment dealers said as a result endofthesession data on bse showed a net fii inflow of rs 144 crore while diis were net buyers at rs 237 crore it was the day of selling by speculators followed by retail investors a dealer with a domestic broking house saidon the sectoral front real estate stocks were the worst hit with bses realty index closing 34 lower market was nervous on the news that one of the leading mumbaibased real estate companies which also has a large stake in a telecom service provider was found to have transferred money to entities related to a raja the former telecom minister who was arrested on wednesday among the leading stocks from the sector dlf was down 28 at rs 237 unitech closed 71 off at rs 43 while db realty the company which was reported to have transferred a little over rs 200 crore to a rajarelated entity tanked 10 to close at rs 140brokers were however surprised that fmcg and software stocks were among the worst hit in fridays session while fmcg stocks are always considered to be the safest bets in a sliding market it stocks were the one which had so far withstood the onslaught of selling since diwali day may be some investors who are still in profit in these stocks wanted to exit before these stock also go out of the money in their portfolio said the head of a local investment advisory firm bses fmcg index closed 31 off and it index 23among the sensex shares mm