Mumbai: Led by IBP, petro shares flared up on the Bombay Stock Exchange on February 5 following heavy buying generated by government's privatisation of the two public sector undertakings, IBP and VSNL.

However, select old-economy shares like RIL, RPL, HLL, BHEL, Telco and Tisco met with selling pressure which forced the SENSEX to close in negative territory at 3311.73, down by 5.28 points.

Reflecting the mood, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened barely steady at 3316.42 and immediately touched a high of 3322.43. Later it dipped to a low of 3290.00 before closing at 3311.73 as against February 4 close of 3317.01.

The BSE-100 index, however, improved further by 11.20 points to 1616.02 from 1604.82 previously.

PTI