Mumbai: Equities lost their early gains and several counters even registered marked falls, pushing the SENSEX into negative terrain at close, in lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on August 22 on late sell-off by local financial institutions.

After an optimistic start that lifted the SENSEX past 3,100-level, the Unit Trust of India (UTI) reportedly made fresh sales to book profits at the day's higher levels in select blue-chip counters, particularly technology stocks.

Depicting the downtrend, the BSE benchmark 30-share index which had rallied to the intra-day high at 3,109.72 at early stages, later reacted substantially dipping to the day's low of 3,077.89 before ending at 3,080.70 as against August 21's close of 3,084.38, a net fall of 3.68 points.

Brokers said initially the market seemed to be on a recovery path with retail investors and speculators making fresh commitments on the back of increased activity by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) which have made net investments of 179 crore in the first two sessions of the week. FIIs had made net purchases of Rs 96 crore during last week.

The sentiment also was supported by a firm trend on Wall Street on August 21. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite Index rose by 85.16 points and 33.66 points on August 22 respectively.

PTI