Mumbai: The sensex opened moderately higher and later witnessed irregular movements during the morning trading on the Stock Exchange today (Feb 10, 2004) on buying support alternated by profit booking by investors.

The BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 5937.46 as against yesterday's (Feb 09, 2004) close of 5926.22 and later fluctuated in a range between 5958.18 and 5897.04 before being quoted at 5897.04 at 10.30hrs (IST).

Though Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which have been net buyers to the tune of Rs 927 crore during last week, were seen making some purchases, operators and retailers took opportunity to book profits at the prevailing higher levels, brokers said.

Brokers, however, expected the market to consolidate its position in view of increased participation by speculators.

Key stocks like BHEL, GACL, Grasim, ICICI Bank, RIL, Satyam Computers and SBI were quoted moderately down due to selling pressure.

However, PSU stocks attracted fairly good buying from investors. Index-based counters like HPCL, ONGC, Tisco, Tata Motors, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Cipla and BSES showed marked gains.