Mumbai: The SENSEX opened subdued and later showed extremely narrow movements in line with lack lustre activity at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 23 on alternate bouts of buying and selling by operators.

The BSE sensitive index opened marginally down at 3,387.70 as against close of 3,390.25 on April 22 and later fluctuated in a range between 3,398.84 and 3,383.11 before being quoted at 3,398.84 at 10:30 hours (IST).

A smart rally in MTNL, HPCL, Glaxo and RIL during late morning trading aided the SENSEX to recover initial losses.

Key IT counters like Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Hughes Software and some others came under pressure following a sharp setback in the NASDAQ composite index that fell by about 38 points and the Dow Jones industrial average also dipped by about 120 points on April 22 night.

However, select second-rung technology stocks were quoted remarkably up on institutional buying at prevailing lower levels. PSU stocks like Bharat electronics and BPCL also was quoted higher on buying from local funds.

PTI