Tuesday, November 22 2005 11:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (Nov 22, 2005) dropped below 8600 level during morning trading due to sustained selling pressure even as the government received green signal for PSU disinvestment.

The Sensex opened moderately down at 8602.82 as against yesterday's close of 8610.74 and later moved further downward to a low of 8550.61 before being quoted at 8559.66 at 10.30 am, down by 51.08 points from previous close.

Discounting reports that the Left parties have agreed to consider the government's proposal to sell small stakes in select profit-making non-navratna public sector enterprises, investors were seen selling in key stocks in a bid to square up positions ahead of expiry of November contract in the Futures on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly were engaged in squaring up their long outstanding positions.

Brokers said lower levels, however, attracted some buying support from retail investors.

HLL, Maruti Udyog, ICICI Bank, ONGC and others were quoted moderately lower due to selling pressure while key stocks like SBI and Infosys Tech showed marked gains.