Mumbai: The SENSEX opened weak and later showed small movements at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on February 25 as Wall Street posted its biggest decline in about a month in the light of renewed threat of a US-led war against Iraq.

Investors once again turned cautious and preferred to wind up positions due to war fears, as a result of the US mounting pressure on the UN Security Council to adopt a new resolution for military action against Baghdad and a reported statement by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that he had no plans to comply with a UN demand to destroy his banned al-Samoud 2 missiles.

The BSE sensitive index opened moderately down at 3,316.91 as against February 24 close of 3,322.17 and gradually moved downwards to a low of 3,291.93 before being quoted at 3,295.01 at 10.45 am (IST).

The Dow Jones industrial average and the NASDAQ composite index dropped by about 160 points and 27 points on February 24 respectively.

Key counters like BHEL, HCL Tech, HPCL, Infosys Tech, RIL, L&T, Satyam Computers, SBI, Telco, Tisco and Zee Telefilm were quoted lower due to selling pressure.

PTI