Wednesday, February 23 2005 17:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The overnight rally was short-lived and once again, the market today (Feb 23, 2005) turned cautious, ending seven points down in dull activity as crude oil prices climbed above $ 51 per barrel amid reports of burgeoning oil import bill.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately up at 6593.85 and later fluctuated in a range of 6607.78 and 6565.42 before ending the day at 6582.50 as against yesterday's close of 6589.41, a net fall of 6.91 points or 0.10 per cent.

After making fresh commitments on the back of banking reforms yesterday, operators largely were confined to squaring up positions in view of expiry of February contract in Futures and Options on Thursday, broker said.

Despite sustained FII inflows and expectations of some positive announcements in the forthcoming Budget, operators preferred to adopt a wait and watch policy till presentation of Budget on February 28.

Crude oil prices traded above $ 51 per barrel in New York, close to its highest price in almost four months coupled with reports that the country's oil import bill for current fiscal is set to rise by 37 per cent to $ 25 billion following high crude prices.

Reacting negatively to soaring oil price, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index yesterday ended down by 174.02 points and 28.30 points respectively.

Foreign Institutional Investors reported net investments of Rs 210.80 crore on February 21.

Infosys Tech, Satyam Computer, SBI, Tata Motors, HPCL, BHEL, Bajaj Auto, GACL and Tata Power recorded marked falls.

However, RIL, L&T, Dr Reddy's, ONGC and Hindalco showed smart gains on some buying support.