Monday, February 20 2006 11:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Shares in the smallcap segment fall sharply during the early trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) here today (Feb 20,2006), pulling down the sensex further by 54.63 points.

The BSE 30-share index opened better at 10,002.36, but soon fell sharply and after touching a intra-trade low of 9915.20, was quoted at 9926.48 at 10.30 a.m., showing a fall of 54.63 points over the previous weekend close of 9981.11.

Operators and retail investors continued to press selling as they did not want to make any big commitments in view of the Union Budget to be presented in the Parliament on February 28, brokers said.

Though Foreign Insititutional Investors (FIIs) made a net buying of Rs 247.1 crores on February 16, they were net sellers in equities worth Rs 559.30 crores during the previous week.

Major losers during the morning trading were Infosys Tech, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), HDFC, HDFC Bank, HLL, Hindalco, Dr Reddy, Grasim,ICICI Bank, Wipro, Tata Power, GACL and L&T.

However, reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Ranabxy, ONGC, Cipla, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Maruti Undyog and Satyam Computers showed some progress.