The market as expected opened in the red with a gap on continued selling pressure amid fears of a protracted US-Iraq war following the strong resistance from the Iraqi army to the US-led strike.

Almost all 30 members of the BSE Sensex were trading in the negative territory with Satyam Computer (down 2.21% to Rs 197.25), HCL Technologies (down 1.98% to Rs 153.50), Zee Telefilms (down 2.44% to Rs 69.95) and Infosys Technologies (down 2.02% to Rs 4,284) being the major losers in the early morning trades.

The BSE Sensex stood at 3,112.13, down 28.23 points by 10:10 IST.

Dealers said that the selling in the market is more due to the concerns over the expiry of the March 2003 contracts, which ends on Thursday (27 March 2003). They said there are huge outstanding positions in the futures and option markets and any selling in that market will further dampen the sentiments in the cash market.

Despite shifting of position to the April 2003 contracts, open positions are still huge, which is expected to be unwounded in the next three days, thus impacting the cash market. As per market talks the open positions in the March 2003 contracts are said to be worth around Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion).

Meanwhile the ongoing US-Iraq war is also a huge concern, which is expected to disrupt the Indian as well as global economy significantly.

As per reports, the troops of the US-led coalition have met with stiff resistance from Iraqi armeds forces in their march towards Baghdad, which is expected to prolong the US-Iraq war has seen the BSE Sensex losing 106.6 points or 3.31% in last two sessions (including the current levels) from 3,218.73 on 22 March 2003. The developments on the war front may set the market trend in the coming sessions, dealers said, adding that stocks may shed their recent gains. Earlier the BSE Sensex in four sessions, between 17 and 22 March 2003, rose 4.33% or 133.82 points to 3,218.73 from 3,084.91 on hopes that the US-Iraq war will be short and not disrupt the global economy.