Mumbai: The market fell flat after a firm start and the Sensex ended marginally up in choppy trading activity at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 10, 2004) on buying support alternated by profit booking by operators and retailers.

After moving erratically in a range between 5972.94 and 5866.62, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index extended its gains to third straight session to end at 5932.52 as against yesterday's close of 5926.22, netting a rise of 6.30 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index also improved modestly by 2.15 points to 3054.66 from previous close of 3052.51.

The volatility has become the order of the day and the volume business increased substantially even as cautious approach by operators and retailers, who were seen booking profits at higher-price levels.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had stepped up activity last week making fairly heavy net investments of Rs 927 crore, were believed to have slowed down considerably.

Brokers largely attributed the resistance in the form of profit-taking to the forthcoming public issues by major PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), saying "a few leading companies plan to raise over Rs 17,000 crore from the primary market in the next couple of months."

While public sector oil giant ONGC (Oil and natural gas Corp) plans to raise over Rs 10,000 crore in March, the Rs 3,000-3,500 crore equity issue of ICICI Bank is expected to hit the market earliest in April.

Brokers felt that the market might meet with resistance at the 6000-6200 level with investors' cautious mood.

ICICI Bank, RIL, ITC, Satyam Computer and HDFC Bank scored handsome gains. However, BHEL, Grasim, Tata Motor, Tisco, SBI and Infosys Tech showed sharp losses.