Mumbai: Equities suffered a moderate setback pushing the SENSEX down by 33 points at close in erratic movements at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Nov 5) on selling pressure by retail investors as well as select foreign funds.

Fluctuating in a narrow range till mid-session, a fresh bout of selling by retailers coupled with profit booking by some Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) drove the market sharply down to the day's low at 5021.97.

However, a partial recovery in key counters like Infosys Tech, HCL Tech, Tisco, Tata Motor, GACL, ACC, RIL and Satyam Computers at the fag end helped mitigate SENSEX's downslide.

After a promising start at 5116.86, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index moved irregularly in a range of about 106 points before ending at 5064.91 as against yesterday's close 5097.84, a net loss of 32.93 points or 0.65 per cent.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index edged up by 5.88 points to 2572.57 from previous close of 2566.69.

Retail investors were continued sellers at the prevailing higher price levels, market sources said, adding select foreign funds were engaged in booking profits while some others made fresh purchases.

FIIs had made net investments of Rs 509 crore in a single session on Monday.

Index-based scrips like Bajaj Auto, BSES, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, Grasim Ind, HLL, Hindalco, ITC, RIL, Satyam Computers, SBI and Tisco recorded substantial losses.

However, GACL, HCL Tech, HDFC, HPCL, MTNL, Ranbaxy Lab, Tata Motor and Zee Telefilms finished with marked gains.

PTI