Mumbai: The SENSEX opened weak and later moved downwards in extremely narrow movements at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on January 13 on selling pressure by domestic funds despite net investments by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) during last week.

However, pharma shares like Dr Reddy's Lab and Ranbaxy Lab as well as heavyweighted counter HLL were quoted remarkably higher on fresh buying from operators.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened moderately lower at 3,355.07 as against the January 10 close of 3,358.99 and later dropped further to 3,340.76 before being quoted at 3,348.44 at 10.30 am (IST).

Attributing consistent buying in pharma stocks to reports about a price rise of off- patent drugs in the US, brokers said domestic funds led by the Unit Trust of India (UTI) seemed to be sellers in select blue-chip counters while speculators were seen picking up shares of HLL at the prevailing market price.

SCI and NALCO dropped sharply on selling triggered by reports that the Disinvestment Ministry has dropped SCI and NALCO from divestment list for Financial Year 2003.

FIIs, which made net purchases of a negligible Rs 93 crore in the first four sessions of last week after being net sellers for preceding couple of weeks, stepped up activity on the Indian bourses, they added.

PTI