Mumbai: The sensex opened steady and later showed signs of upward movements during morning trading on the Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Mar 4, 2004) on selective buying support by operators and retailers.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened steady at 5842.41 as against yesterday's (Mar 3, 2004) close of 5842.20 and later moved up to a high at 5867.90 before being quoted at 5865.33 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

Attributing early buying support by retailers to heavy net purchases of Rs 333 crore by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) on Monday (Mar 1, 2004), brokers said investors were seen making commitments in select blue chip stocks at early stages.

Key counters like Bharti Televentures, BHEL, Grasim, GACL, HDFC, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Infosys Tech, ONGC, L&T, Satyam Comp and Tata Power were quoted remarkably up.

However, Tata Motor, Tisco, RIL, ITC, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto showed moderate falls on selling pressure.