Monday, February 7 2005 12:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex, which started on an optimistic note, failed to maintain the trend at the opening session at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 07, 2005) due to fresh selling pressure and was marginally lower than the previous close.

The 30-share sensitive index resumed firm at 6652.33 as against last Friday's (Feb 04, 2005) close of 6618.23 and rose further to a high of 6658.33. Soon it fell sharply and was quoted at 6617.71 at 10:00hrs (IST) marginally lower than the previous close.

However, dealers were optimistic and said that the market could gain strength as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which remained very active throughout last week by making a net purchase of a whopping Rs 4,211 crores ($ 958 million), were expected to extend their support today.

However, last week Mutual Funds (MFs) were net sellers with a Rs 134.43 crores net sales. As far as MF inflow during the week is concerned, one had to adopt a wait-and-watch policy, they said.

During early trade, Bajaj Auto, ITC, BHEL, Dr Reddy, DHFC Bank, Hero Honda, HLL, Hindalco, Larsen, Satyam Computers, State Bank, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Wipro and ZEE Tele were on the firm spot.

However, Reliance Energy, Tata Motors, ACC and Grasim started the day on a subdued note on lack of support.