Mumbai: Subdued conditions continued to prevail at the Stock Exchange (BSE) at the morning (Mar 11, 2004) session as share prices resumed lower extending overnight losses following sustained selling by operators as well as local funds in the absence of any worthwhile buying and weak global advices.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened lower at 5737.69 from yesterday's (Mar 10, 2004) close of 5759.29 and moved irregularly in a range between 5751.26 and 5713.17 before being quoted at 5740.77 at 10.30hrs (IST).

Global bearish trend also impacted negatively on the local market as on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled by 160.07 points and 31.01 points last night respectively.

Southeast Asian markets also showed feeble trend this morning. The Hang Seng was down by nearly 119 points, the Nikkei by 117 points and Singapore ST index by 22 points.

Among index-based counters, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Cipla, GACL, Grasim, HDFC, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Infosys Tech, ITC, L&T, SBI, Tisco, Tata Motors and Wipro were quoted remarkably lower on some profit selling.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy, Hero Honda, ONGC, REL and Tata power showed moderate rise.

Recently battered Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) giant and among the top heavyweights, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) recovered sharply and helped the sensex to minimise losses.