Tuesday, August 9 2005 12:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (Aug 9, 2005) witnessed volatile movements after a promising start and was quoted up by 38 points at 10.30 am on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on buying support alternated by profit booking by investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately higher at 7617.46 as against yesterday's close of 7606.17 and later fluctuated in a range of 7645.11 and 7575.75 before being quoted at 7643.77 at 10.30 am, up by 37.60 points.

Operators and domestic funds were believed to be booking profits at the prevailing higher price levels while Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly were making purchases in select blue chip counters.

The market is expected to remain volatile due to selling pressure from domestic investors amid sustain FII inflows, brokers said. FIIs have pumped in Rs 807.20 crore on Friday.

Brokers attributed the selling pressure to soaring crude prices and weak trend on Wall Street.

Oil prices soared above US Dollar 63 a barrel yesterday (Aug 8, 2005) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index suffered another setback last night.

Heavyweight counters like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), ONGC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, Grasim and Bajaj Auto showed marked gains.

However Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL), Tata Motors, State Bank Of India (SBI), Cipla and Maruti Udyog were quoted substantially down on profit booking.