Mumbai: The Sensex opened steady and later touched a new intra-trade high of 6412.25 in an otherwise erratic movements during morning trading on the Stock Exchange in Mumbai today (Dec 16, 2004) on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened slightly lower at 6401.19 as against yesterday's (Dec 15, 2004) close of 6402.29 and later moved in a range of 6412.25 and 6376.28 before being quoted at 6376.28 at 10.30 hrs (IST), down 26.01 points.

Operators and traders were believed to be booking profits at the prevailing higher price levels while the market is driven to dizzy heights by sustained FII inflows.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported net investments of Rs 182.40 crore on Tuesday, have pumped in about $8 billion (nearly 40,000 crore) from January 2004 till December 14, the highest ever inflow in any calendar year.

Selling was also attributed to firm trend in the global oil prices. Oil prices climbed above $44 a barrel after US Government data showed a slight decline in crude and heating oil supplies.

Key counters like RIL, SBI and others were quoted down due to profit booking at early stages.