Mumbai: After the overnight stocks crash, the Sensex opened on a promising note and fluctuated erratically indicating volatile activity during the session on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Jan 7, 2004) on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 5970.35 as against yesterday's close of 5943.64 and later moved in a range between 5985.30 and 5932.03 before being quoted at 5947.27 at around 10:30 hours (IST).

Brokers said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have slowed down activity while domestic financial institutions were seen selling heavily in select counters during early stages of the session.

Pointing out that the Unit Trust of India (UTI), Life Insurance Corp (LIC), Kotak Bank and BNP Paribas were heavy sellers yesterday, market sources said the market will remain volatile during the day due to heavy sell-off alternated by buying support from operators.

Bajaj Auto, HLL, ICICI Bank, ITC, Ranbaxy Lab, Satyam Computers, Tata Motors and a few others were quoted substantially lower on selling pressure.

However, Tisco, SBI, RIL, ONGC, L&T, HPCL, Infosys Tech, Grasim and BHEL showed remarkable gains.