Mumbai: The SENSEX opened marginally lower and later moved in a restricted range in line with scrip- specific activity during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (November 17) on selective buying support.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened lower at 4907.02 as against previous close of 4911.76 and later moved in a range between 4919.02 and 4883.05 before being quoted at 4910.45 at 10:30 hours (IST).

Though encouraging mid-year economic review released by the Finance Minister late last week is seen to be a strong factor, investors have turned extremely cautious in view of huge outstanding positions in the derivatives held by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), anticipating selling pressure.

Brokers, however, seemed to be confident about the market trend and ruled out any major stocks slide saying, "Buying is unlikely to peter out with strong economic fundamentals."

FIIs had relatively slowed down activity during last week, making net investments of Rs 805 crore in the first four sessions as compared to Rs 1,506 crore in the same period of the preceding week.

Key stocks like Tata Motor, BHEL, BSES, HPCL, Infosys Tech and Satyam Computers were quoted up on fresh buying while ACC, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's Lab, HLL, L&T, MTNL, RIL and Tisco showed losses.

PTI