Mumbai: Led by RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) and HLL (Hindustan Lever Limited), equities lost early gains and a few even ended with marked falls pushing the SENSEX down by 10 points at close at the Bomaby Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 7 on late selling pressure by domestic funds and retail investors.

Both the top heavyweighted counters, RIL and HLL suffered a sharp setback on sustained selling by hedge funds while select pharma shares that had been in the limelight during last week, met with a resistance due to profit booking at higher levels.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index showed signs of a fresh rally rising to the intra-day at 3645.42 at the early stages of the session. However, later it reacted sharply due to late sell-off and ended at 3612.53 as against last Friday's close of 3622.34, a net loss of 9.81 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index, however, rose by 8.68 points to 1847.37 from previous close of 1838.69.

Brokers termed the market as operator-driven for the positive role played by bulls that have continuously been enlarging their commitments on the back of increased FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) activity on the bourses.

FIIs have made net purchases of Rs 663 crore in the first four sessions during last week, taking the total net investments to Rs 6,710 crore in the current calendar year.

However, select old economy blue chips like Telco, Tisco, ACC, BSES, HDFC and Hindalco closed with handsome gains.

PTI