Thursday, July 7 2005 12:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (July 7, 2005) opened weak and later dropped sharply during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on selling pressure from Indian Financial Institutions as well as retail investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately down at 7281.07 as against yesterday's (July 6, 2005) close of 7287.60 and later moved downwards to a low of 7239.47 before being quoted at 7241.16, down by 45.44 points.

Attributing the weak trend at early stages to fairly heavy selling pressure, brokers said domestic financial institutions were believed to be booking profits at the higher price levels.

The market is driven by sustained purchases by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported net investments of Rs 576.30 crore in the first two days of the week.

A sharp fall on Wall Street and soaring crude prices also had a sentimental impact on the market. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index yesterday ended down by 101.12 points and 10.10 points respectively.

Global oil prices touched a record high in Asian trading in the morning with the benchmark New York contract surging to 61.53 dollars a barrel.

Key counters like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Reliance Energies Limited (REL), State Bank Of India (SBI), ONGC, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), Infosys Tech,HDFC, Hindalco, Dr Reddy's Lab, Bharat Electrical Heavy Limited (BHEL), Tata Motor, Bharti Tele-Venture and Bajaj Auto were quoted substantially lower on selling pressure.

However, Wipro, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Tata consultancy Services Limited (TCS Ltd) showed marked gains on some buying support.