Mumbai: Select blue chip stocks drifted lower pushing the Sensex down by 31 points at close in extremely low volume on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (June 21, 2004) on fresh selling pressure from retailers and domestic funds amidst absence of any worthwhile purchases by foreign funds.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened steady at 4770.65 and later moved irregularly in a narrow range of 4790.93 and 4731.72 before ending at 4738.62 as against last Friday's close of 4769.99, a net fall of 31.37 points or 0.66 per cent.

Had it not been for handsome gains in a few heavyweighted counters like Infosys Technologies, HPCL, Hindalco, HLL, Hero Honda, HDFC, Grasim, BHEL and Wipro, the BSE barometer would have recorded another sharp fall.

Operators were seen covering short positions at the lower price levels while booking profits at the day's higher levels ahead of the approaching expiry of June Contract in the Futures and Options segment.

Retailers seemed to be cautious preferring to wait for the Budget which is expected to spell out the UPA Government's agenda on reforms and economic policies, brokers said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) which generally were engaged in reshuffling their portfolios before the Budget was presented on July 8, seemed to be keeping a low profile in the prevailing market situation.

Key stocks like RIL, Tata Motors, SBI, Tisco, Zee Tele, Satyam Computers, RIL, Ranbaxy, MTNL, MUL, ITC, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's Lab, GACL and Bharti Tele-Venture registered marked losses on selling pressure.