Mumbai: The SENSEX opened marginally lower and later moved downwards in line with a fresh slide in key stocks at early stages on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 15 on selling by cautious investors triggered by weak global markets.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened moderately up at 3,302.64 as against the July 12 close of 3,305.83 and later met with a strong resistance falling to a low of 3,274.01 before being quoted at 3,274.76 at 10:30 hours (IST).

The last weekend's sharp slide in New York stocks that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by another 117 points led a sharp slide in all global stocks markets. The Nikkei and the Hang Seng were down by 207.70 points and 56.08 points at late morning trading.

Market sources said foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which had been net buyers for a couple of weeks till July 5, have slowed down activity in the light of continued slide on Wall Street with the Dow falling by a whopping 695 points during the last week, making it the worst week of the year.

Key heavyweights like Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Zee Telefilms, Tisco, Telco, RIL and a few others were quoted sharply lower due to selling pressure.

PTI