Peculiar behaviour on a locally managed tablespace

Hello,

Oracle version is 8.1.7.4

I've a table sitting in a locally managed tablespace. The table has an extent size of 5m( uniform ). Every time the records are inserted after the HWM( high water mark ), even though there is a lot of space available ( with in the tablespace ) and the total volume of the table ( and those inserted are very small( in 100's ). This causes lot of fragmentation.

Here are some details...

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT DBMS_ROWID.ROWID_BLOCK_NUMBER(ROWID)) FROM SA_MAX_FISCAL_PERIOD;
COUNT(DISTINCTDBMS_ROWID.ROWID_BLOCK_NUMBER(ROWID))
---------------------------------------------------
6
select count(*) from SA_MAX_FISCAL_PERIOD;
COUNT(*)
----------
297
select num_rows, blocks, empty_blocks from user_tables
where table_name='SA_MAX_FISCAL_PERIOD';
NUM_ROWS BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ---------- ---------------------
297 5119 0

Couldn't get much from oracle meta-link.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Kramer.