Mumbai: The sensex opened weak and continued its downward march falling below 5800 mark during the morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange today (Feb 20, 2004) on sustained selling by investors that seemed to be showing keen interest in the forthcoming public issues by major companies.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately lower at 5847.97 as against yesterday's (Feb 19, 2004) close of 5855.10 and later moved downwards to a low at 5796.74 before being quoted at 5813.33 at 10.30 hours (IST).

Investors seemed to be more interested in diverting their investments in the key IPOs (Initial Public Offer) than carrying forward positions in secondary markets, brokers said.

Foreign Institutional Investors which made net purchases of Rs 771 crore in the first three sessions, reportedly were heavy sellers yesterday. Domestic mutual funds have withdrawn Rs 290 crore in three sessions.

IT shares remained under pressure with key stocks like Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers and Wipro showing sharp fall at early stages.

Others like Zee Tele, Tata Power, Tata Motor, SBI, ONGC, L&T, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Grasim, BHEL, Bajaj Auto and BSES also were quoted substantially lower.

However, RIL, GACL, HPCL and Tisco recovered moderately.