Mumbai: The SENSEX opened moderately lower and later dropped sharply at early stages in line with fresh slide in heavy weighted stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on January 27 on sustained selling by foreign as well as domestic funds.

The BSE sensitive Index opened weak at 3,283.93 as against the January 24 close of 3,287.86 and later fell to a low of 3,255.36 before being quoted at 3261.86 at 10.30 am (IST).

A leading US fund was reportedly continuously selling in blue-chip counters to meet the redemption pressure, as a result, other players also pressed sales at the prevailing price levels, brokers said.

A sharp fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 238.46 points and in the NASDAQ composite index by 46.14 points last weekend had sentimental impact on the market.

Key counters like SBI, RIL, Satyam Computers, Zee Tele, L&T, ITC, Infosys Technologies, Grasim Ind, Dr Reddy's Lab and BHEL were quoted substantially lower at early stages. However, HPCL, MTNL and GACL showed remarkable gains on fresh buying support.

PTI