Tuesday, March 14 2006 11:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) met with a resistance and was quoted moderately down today(Mar 14, 2006) in volatile activity during early trade due to fresh profit selling by operators amid sustained purchases by institutional investors.

The Sensex opened moderately lower at 10,796.82 against yesterday's close of 10,803.71 and later moved erratically in a range of 10,850.84 and 10,761.22 before being quoted at 10,792.72 at 10.30 am, down by 10.99 points from last close.

Operators and retail investors have turned cautious at the prevailing higher levels and preferred to book profits in key counters in view of possibility of liquidity crunch owing to the advance tax flows.

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reported inflow of Rs 624.7 crore on March 10. Domestic Mutual Funds also made net purchases of Rs 413.2 crore on Friday.

Brokers said Indian financial institutions also believed to have made profits at higher levels after making heavy purchases last week.