Mumbai: The SENSEX opened barely steady and later moved upwards in line with moderate rally in select heavyweights on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on January 28 on good buying support from foreign funds and local institutions.

Recently badly battered Information Technology (IT) shares attracted some buying enquiries at lower levels despite weak advices from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average and the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite index declined further by 141.45 points and 16.87 points on January 27 night respectively.

Select old-economy heavyweights also registered modest rise on scattered buying by local funds.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index resumed steady at 3,247.09 from January 27 close of 3,247.71 and immediately touched a low of 3,238.54. Later it rose to a high of 3,263.31 before being quoted at 3,251.91 at 10.45 am (IST).

Dealers said the fears of war by US against Iraq still worried the marketmen as the UN chief weapons inspector on January 27 reported that Iraq has not "genuinely" accepted disarmament.

PTI