Tuesday, July 19 2005 17:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (July 19, 2005) ended flat after scaling yet another historic peaks at 7385.69 during early trade as the overheated market adjusted downwards taking a breather from the recent volatility.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened steady at 7348.60 and later fluctuated erratically in a range of 7385.69 and 7317.85 before ending the day at 7346.63 as against yesterday's close of 7347.10, a minor change of 0.47 point.

The market failed to maintain day's higher levels after domestic investors turned scrip-specific adopting cautious approach in the latter part of trading session as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) shifted their focus to mid-cap and small-cap during the day.

FIIs were believed to be engaged in selective purchases. FIIs have reported net investments of Rs 204.60 crore on Friday, taking their total investments during last week to Rs 1473.70 crore.

Operators reportedly were seen covering short positions in the derivatives segment, besides making some commitments in blue chip counters, brokers said.

REL suffered a marked setback despite the company's announcement of encouraging first quarter working results.

Key counters like RIL, SBI, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tata Motor Maruti Udyog, HDFC Bank, BHEL and HDFC recorded smart gains.

However, ITC, Infosys Tech, L&T, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, Bharti Tele-Venture, ACC and Ranbaxy showed marked losses.

The activity was more pronounced in Mid-Cap and Small-Cap segments. As a result, the BSE Mid-Cap Index rose by 18.04 points to 3679.04 and the BSE Small-Cap by 29.17 points to 4954.35.