Mumbai: The Sensex opened moderately better and later moved irregularly in sustained volatility on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on October 24 on some buying support alternated by sustained selling by local funds.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately up at 4,654.27 as against October 23 close of 4,648.41 and later fluctuated in a range between 4,678.01 and 4,616.40 before being quoted at 4,623.97 at 10.45 am (IST).

Despite continued flow of good news, the market has failed to resist the slide due largely to heavy sell- off by domestic private mutual funds that are under heavy redemption pressure and unloading by speculators ahead of the expiry of October contract in Futures on October 23.

Some major corporates like Satyam Computers, Hindalco and Tata Power also have announced better- than-expected quarterly results, as well as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have been net buyers to the tune of Rs 808 crore in the first three sessions of the week.

Blue chip counters like Grasim, ACC, GACL, Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers and Zee Telefilms were quoted remarkably up.

L&T, MTNL, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, HDFC, Ranbaxy Lab, Tisco and Tata Motor, however, showed substantial losses.

Among the top gainers, HMT were quoted up by 6.01 per cent, Pentamedia by 4.26 per cent, Himachal Futur by 2.90 per cent, Satyam Computers by 2.85 per cent and CMC Ltd by 2.83 per cent.

PTI