Mumbai: Continuing its upward march, the SENSEX opened better and later moved erratically in a range of 28 points during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on July 4 on sustained buying support from operators and unabated purchases by foreign funds.

The BSE Sensitive Index opened moderately higher at 3642.30 as against the July 3 close of 3639.89 and later fluctuated in a range between 3661.87 and 3624.20 before being quoted at 3659.81 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Buying was more pronounced in cement and pharma stocks with bulls consistently extending positions in these sectors for the past couple of sessions.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), which comparatively have slowed down activity, were net buyers to the tune of Rs 370 crore in the first three sessions of the week.

Foreign funds were seen making purchases in pharma stocks for the past several days.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down by 72.63 points and the NASDAQ Composite Index fell by 15.27 points on July 3.

PTI