Mumbai: The Sensex recovered early losses in the last 30 minutes on the back of selective stocks rally in an otherwise mixed pattern of trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (March 24, 2004) on late buying support from operators and retailers that also squared up positions in derivatives.

After showing signs of a fresh upsurge at early stages, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index gradually moved downwards to the intra-day low at 5345.15 before ending at 5395.28 as against yesterday's close of 5400.99, netting a small fall of 5.71 points or 0.11 per cent.

The market witnessed revival of buying support in the last 30 minutes as operators and retail investors reportedly turned buyers creating fresh positions in cash segment after resorting to squaring up in derivatives on penultimate session of March contract in the Futures and Options segment.

Brokers generally attributed the change in investors' attitude to continued flow of investments from Foreign Institutional investors (FIIs) which were net buyers to the tune of Rs 180 crore on March 22.

FIIs were believed to be net buyers in select blue-chip counters at the prevailing lower price levels.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index improved by 5.85 points to 2841.02 from previous close of 2835.17.

Index-based counters like Reliance Engergy, Tata Motor, RIL, ICICI Bank, MTNL, Cipla, BHEL, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, Zee Telefilms, ONGC and HPCL scored handsome gains.

However, Infosys Tech, HLL, GACL, SBI, ITC, Tisco, Grasim Ind, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy's Lab and Wipro showed marked falls.