Mumbai: Select second-line counters were in the limelight even as the SENSEX ended in the negative terrain in a mixed pattern of trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on April 22 on fairly good purchases by foreign funds alternated by profit booking by local institutions.

Polaris Software and NIIT rallied smartly reportedly on heavy net purchases by a leading foreign fund, brokers said.

However, operators and some domestic institutions were believed to have been booking profits in blue-chip stocks like RIL, Infosys Technologies, Tisco, MTNL, ITC, HLL, HPCL, HCL Tech, BHEL, BSES and Bajaj Auto.

Reflecting the trend, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 2994.50 and later moved in a limited range between 2998.13 and 2971.69 before ending at 2985.54 as against the April 21 close of 2996.97, netting a fall of 11.43 points or 0.38 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index eased by 4.07 points to 1481.99 from previous close of 1486.06.

The top heavyweight RIL which would announced its fourth quarter working results on April 23, witnessed fairly heavy sell-off at early stages but later recovered partially at the fag end on fund buying.

Other key stocks like Telco, SBI, Satyam Computers, Nestle and several second-line shares scored remarkable gains at close on buying support.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which had been net buyers to the tune of Rs 406 crore during last week, have considerably slowed down activity on the bourses.

PTI