Mumbai: The SENSEX opened on a promising note but later reacted negatively as cement and bank shares met with strong resistance during morning trading at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 1 due to profit booking by domestic funds and retail investors.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened remarkably higher at 3617.74 as against yesterday's close of 3607.13 and later rose to a high at 3622.89 before falling sharply to a low of 3584.73. Later, it was quoted at 3593.75 at around 10.30 am.

Brokers said Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in select key counters, local funds pressed sales to book profits at higher levels. FIIs have made heavy net purchases of Rs 637 crore during last week, taking the total net investments during the six months of the year to Rs 6047 crore.

ACC, Grasim Ind, GACL, SBI, HCL Techno, HPCL, ICICI Bank and MTNL were quoted substantially lower at early stages.

Among the top losers, Bank of India were quoted down by 5.96 per cent, Crompton GR by 4.49 per cent, HDFC by 3.02 per cent, Silverline by 2.47 per cent, SCI by 2.41 per cent, ICICI Bank by 1.86 per cent, RCF by 1.82 per cent, GACL by 1.80 per cent and Steel Authority by 1.72 per cent.

However, Hind Zinc, Aurobindo Pharma, Mascot system, United Phosp, BEML, SSI Ltd, CCI and Abbott India showed marked gains.

PTI