Monday, April 11 2005 11:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (Apr 11, 2005) opened moderately down and later fell sharply during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) due to sustained selling pressure ahead of announcements of quarterly results.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened weak at 6477.14 as against last Friday's (Apr 8, 2005) close of 6479.54 and later dropped to a low of 6423.99 before being quoted at 6427.95 at 10:30 hrs (IST), down by 51.59 points.

Operators and retail investors have adopted cautious approach, keeping away from making any fresh commitments ahead of quarterly corporate results expected during the month.

Market players seemed to be unwilling to create any fresh positions due to nervousness over financial results of software companies, brokers said adding that the market is still in overbought zone.

The cautious approach by investors was also because of indications of an imminent hike in petrol and diesel prices in view of high global crude oil price.

Meanwhile, crude futures slipped further to $ 52.90 a barrel during midmorning trading in Asia, but is still considered to be high at the prevailing levels.

Besides IT majors like Wipro, Satyam Computer and Infosys Technologies, key counters including RIL, Tata Steel, ONGC, ITC, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Bharti Tele-Venture and ACC were quoted substantially lower due to selling pressure.

However, Tata Motor, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank and HLL showed moderate gains on some buying support.