Tuesday, May 31 2005 11:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex turned weak after opening better and was quoted nine points down at 10:30 hrs (IST) in an otherwise mixed trend during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (May 31, 2005) on fresh selling pressure alternated by selective buying support.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately up at 6666.17 as against yesterday's (May 30, 2005) close of 6663.55 and later moved in a range of 6673.01 and 6647.70 before being quoted at 6654.48 at 10:30 hrs (IST), down by 9.07 points.

Operators and retailers seemed to have turned cautious at the prevailing levels and were seen booking profits in a few heavy weighted counters.

However, institutional investors were believed to be selective buyers in some blue chip counters.

The slowdown in purchases by domestic funds also had adverse impact on the sentiment.

Domestic mutual funds, which had been heavy buyers during the past few weeks, reported a meagre net purchases of Rs 68.77 crore on May 27. While Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported net sales of Rs 446.90 crore on the same day.

Blue chip counters like Tata Power, SBI, Ranbaxy, HLL, Hero Honda, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Udyog were quoted moderately lower on fresh selling pressure.

However, Wipro, Satyam Computers, Tata Steel, Tata Motor, REL, ITC, HPCL, Dr Reddy's Lab, BHEL and ACC showed marked gains on renewed buying support.