Mumbai: Benchmark was quoted in positive territory at early stages in lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 24 following scattered buying by operators in the absence of any worthwhile support from institutional investors.

Reflecting the mood, the BSE-30 share sensitive index opened slightly better at 3408.84 and moved in a narrow range between 3420.79 and 3401.55 before being quoted at 3417.28 at 11:15 hours (IST) as against close of 3403.82 on April 23.

Some of the IT counters displayed a firm trend on speculative buying despite weak NASDAQ advices where the NASDAQ composite index dropped by over 28 points n April 23 night.

Software educational giants, NIIT and SSI Ltd were in limelight on some interested buying.

Second-rung IT stocks remained in keen demand.

Under the leadership of Zee Telefilms, select media scrips continued its upward march on speculative buying.

Dealers said that institutional participation was restricted to select key pivotals.

PTI