Tuesday, February 8 2005 10:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex started on a subdued note at the opening session on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Feb 08, 2005) due to increased selling pressure.

The 30-shares sensitive index opened with overnight weakness at 6528.81, but soon recovered to a high of 6552.06. Thereafter, it started falling sharply and after touching a session's low of 6508.33 was quoted at 6521,64 at 10:30 hrs (IST), showing a loss of 13.53 points over yesterday's (Feb 07,2005) close of 6535.17.

Operators and retail investors, who were the net sellers on Monday, continued to offload some of holdings in the absence of any encouraging factors.

"The market will continue to remain volatile in the coming days as the Union Budget is just two week away," a dealer said.

During the early trade BHEL, Satyam Computer, Larsen, HLL, Bharti Tele, Tata Power, M&M, Hind Motor, MTNL, NTPC, ONGC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Ranbaxy, SBI, Maruti, ITC, Bank of Baroda and Sesa Goa were weak on increased selling.

However, Reliance, ACC, Tata Motor, Tisco, VSNL, Wipro and ZEE Tele showed some progress on good support.