Mumbai: The Sensex opened firm and surged up further to a high of 5,073.70 today (May 20, 2004) at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as the market welcomed the selection of Manmohan Singh as the next Prime Minister.

However, the market later crashed from its early high and was quoted at a low of 4,927.62 due to selling pressure from operators, which seemed to extremely cautious ahead of finalisation of Common Minimum Programme (CMP) by the Congress and its allies.

The sensex was quoted at 4,974.19 at 10.15 a.m. as against yesterday's close of 5,006.10.