Mumbai: The SENSEX opened steady and later turned weak at early stages in line with fresh downslide in key heavyweights on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 11 on continued selling pressure from investors.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened steady at 3,332.15 as against July 10 close of 3,332.36 and later moved downwards dipping to a low of 3,311.93 before being quoted at 3,319.80 at 10.30 hours (IST).

Index-based shares like Bajaj Auto, BHEL, BSES, HCL Tech, Infosys Tech, ITC, RIL, Satyam Computers and SBI were quoted moderately lower during late morning deals due to fresh selling by domestic institutions and retail investors.

Market sources said another sharp fall in New York stocks that pushed the NASDAQ Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by 35.11 points and 282.59 points on July 10 night respectively, also had negative impact on the sentiment.

Stocks in the South East Asian markets also suffered a sharp setback in the light of the meltdown on Wall Street. The Nikkei and the Hang Seng were quoted sharply down by about 197 points and 257 points on July 11 morning respectively.

PTI