Mumbai: A sharp fall in IT bellwether, Infosys Tech, led the market to surrender its initial firmness at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 2 due to selling by foreign funds and operators, pulling the SENSEX down by another 3.04 points to close at 3601.39.

Despite negative closing, undertone was firm and the volume also was good, dealers said.

Led by Infosys Tech, most of the software shares bore the brunt of heavy selling on expectation of lower- than-expected Q1 working results by many of these companies, they said.

Other index-based shares like Bajaj Auto, BHEL, BSES, Dr Reddy, HCL Techno, HDFC, HLL, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Satyam Computer also met with selling and finished lower.

A sharp to moderate rise in Grasim, ITC, L&T, MTNL, Ranbaxy, RIL, Telco, Tisco, Castrol, Cipla, Glaxo and Zee Telefilms minimised the fall in SENSEX.

Select pharma stocks were also better on good buying by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) while operators picked up shares of select textile, steel and media companies.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose by 55.51 points and 17.33 points last night respectively which, however, had little impact on the local market.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened firm at 3613.42 as against yesterday's close of 3604.43 and touched a high of 3640.97. Later, selling in select scrips pulled it down to a low of 3596.47 and ended at 3601.39, a fall of 3.04 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index eased by 1.97 points to 1816.85 from previous close of 1818.82.

PTI