Mumbai: The SENSEX opened marginally higher and later moved in a narrow range of about 30 points in line with a narrowly mixed trend at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 21 on selling pressure by speculators as well as institutional investors.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened slightly up at 3,268.10 as against the previous close of 3,264.02 and later dipped to a low of 3,239.28 before being quoted at 3,257.43 at 10.30 am (IST).

Punters and retail investors seemed to be unwilling to hold on with their long positions for the fact that the government is reportedly considering to allow the Unit Trust of India to offload its bulk holdings in companies like ITC and Reliance Industries in order to meet its redemption pressure, market sources said.

Fresh slide in New York stocks that pushed the NASDAQ Composite Index by about 32 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 130 points also worked against the market.

PTI