Mumbai: The sensex opened marginally up and later fluctuated irregularly in line with divergent trends in volatile activity during morning trading on the Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) on October 23 on fresh selling pressure alternated by buying at lower levels.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened slightly higher at 4744.48 as against October 22 close of 4741.20 and later moved erratically in range between 4751.44 and 4707.11 before being quoted at 4729.96 at 10.30 A M.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) which seemed to be gradually slowing down activity, were seen making purchases at lower price levels while domestic funds and speculators availed every opportunity to book profits in select blue-chip counters, brokers said.

After making heavy net investments of Rs 2219 crore during last week, FIIs have made net purchases of Rs 319 crore on October 21 and Rs 286 crore on October 22, indicating slowdown in activity.

Some leading domestic mutual funds are heavy sellers in view of redemption pressure. Mutual Funds have made net sales of Rs 284 crore in the first couple of sessions of the week.

Blue-chips like Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's Lab, Grasim Ind, HDFC, Hero Honda, ITC, L&T, MTNL, Ranbaxy Lab, RIL and Zee Telefilms were quoted substantially lower.

However, Tata Motor, Satyam Computers, Nestle, ACC and a few others showed moderate gains.

PTI