Mumbai: Fresh selling in select heavyweight at initial stages led the benchmark to resume lower on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on March 12, following a profit- booking by wary operators after overnight brief rally.

Dealers said the March 11 recovery was mainly due to short covering by operators forced by selective buying by local funds at lower levels.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened lower at 3,151.60 and briefly touched a high of 3,153.01. However, it declined to a low of 3,136.57 before being quoted at 3,142.41 at 10.30 am (IST), as against March 11 close of 3,154.91.

Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HLL, Infosys Technologies, HPCL, Satyam Computer, Larsen & Toubro and HCL Technologies were quoted marginally lower on profit-booking, while Bajaj Auto, SBI, Glaxo and few others showed moderate rally on good buying support.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average and the NASDAQ composite index dropped by 44.12 points and 6.90 points respectively on March 11 night.

PTI