Mumbai, April 5: Crude price jitters today sent the sensex on a 54-point tumble, a slide also fuelled by the growing strength of the dollar against major world currencies.

Crude prices hit a new high of $58.28 per barrel on Monday before cooling a little to $57. Analysts are worried that the flare-up, fed by projections of soaring demand from countries like India and China, could take prices to $60-a-barrel mark soon. ?The $63-per-barrel mark is the level which is being talked about,? a broker said.

A strong dollar could squeeze foreign capital into local markets, where fresh Sebi figures put net investments by FIIs on Monday at $55.90 million. While this takes their net investments this year to $144 million, many are concerned over a Citigroup move to downgrade emerging markets to underweight from neutral.

The 30-share sensex opened at 6611.53, hit a high of 6621.91 but slipped to a low of 6532.94 before ending at 6550.29, a fall of 54.13 points or 0.82 per cent over its last close.

Some, however, see the tide turning as firms come through on expectations of good fourth-quarter and year-end numbers. ?Oil is a worry, no doubt, but we will soon see the impact of the earnings season,? an analyst said.

Banks and auto firms bore the brunt of the selloff, as did some other commodity stocks, like steel and cement. State Bank of India, Tata Motors, Maruti, Tata Steel and Grasim were among the big stocks that were rocked.

However, shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation bucked the slump, ending almost 2 per cent higher.

The volume of business on Dalal Street shrunk to Rs 1776.14 crore from Rs 2008.94 crore on Monday. Tisco was the most actively traded share with a turnover of Rs 114.83 crore, followed by Reliance, State Bank and ONGC.