Tuesday, February 1 2005 11:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The sensex turned weak after a strong start and moved downwards during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 01, 2005) due to resistance at higher price levels and lack of any worthwhile buying support.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately higher at 6565.21 and firmed to a high of 6583.12 within minutes of resumption of trading.

However, it dropped sharply to a low of 6508.84 due to profit booking by domestic players before being quoted at 6538.85 at 10:30 hrs (IST), down by 17.09 points from yesterday's (Jan 31, 2005) close of 6555.94.

Despite several positive factors including fresh FII inflows, retailers and traders were seen booking profits at the prevailing higher price levels amid absence of worthwhile buying from any quarters.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which had slowed down activity during January, reported hefty net purchases of Rs 830.70 crore in two sessions on January 27 and 28.

Commenting on the weak trend, brokers said that the market is likely to witness some pressure after a massive jump of about 450 points in the last four trading sessions.

Blue chip counters including Tata Steel, Zee Telefilms, Tata Motors, SBI, Satyam Computers, Ranbaxy, Maruti Udyog, L&T, ITC, HPCL, HDFC Bank, GACL, Dr Reddy's and Bharti Tele-Venture were quoted substantially lower. However, BHEL, RIL, Hero Honda, Wipro, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Hindalco and Infosys Tech showed moderate gains.