Mumbai: After opening on a promising note, the Sensex once again met with resistance and turned weak in continuous volatile activity during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Jan 19, 2004) due to fresh selling by hedge funds and operators.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately higher at 5967.39 as against last Friday (Jan 16)'s close of 5946.19 but later reacted negatively and fell back to a low of 5915.15 before being quoted at 5934.40 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Brokers said foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which had dramatically slowed down activity during last week, seem to have turned net sellers in select blue-chip counters.

Operators too were cautious in view of reports that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has expressed concern over the huge outstanding positions in the futures and options segment on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Retail investors too were believed to be booking profits in the prevailing situation.

Key counters like Grasim, GACL, L&T, Infosys Tech, MTNL, RIL and a few others were quoted substantially lower.

However, Tata Motor, SBI, ONGC, ITC, BSES, BHEL and ACC showed marked gains on fresh buying support.