Mumbai: The sensex opened fractionally lower and later fluctuated erratically in volatile activity during morning trading on the Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) today (November 21) on alternate bouts of buying and selling by investors.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened slightly down at 4770.75 as against yesterday's (November 20) close of 4771.23 and later moved in a range between 4786.03 and 4741.99 before being quoted at 4768.04 at 10.30 AM (IST).

Anticipating continued selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which is expected to book profits ahead of the year end, speculators too began squaring up positions in Futures and Options ahead of the expiry of November contract on November 27.

FIIs made net sales of Rs 119 crore in the first three sessions of the week. However, domestic funds have cornered shares amounting to Rs 84 crore in the same period, after being sellers for the past several days.

Brokers expected the market to remain volatile in view of approaching expiry date of November contract in derivatives.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by another 71 points and the NASDAQ Composite Index dipped by 18 points last night.

Key stocks like Grasim, Tisco, RIL, Satyam Computers, L&T, ITC, Infosys Tech and BSES were quoted remarkably up.

However, GACL, SBI, Dr Reddy's Lab, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Ranbaxy Lab and a few others were quoted down.

Among the top gainers, Sun Pharma were quoted up by 2.78 per cent, Hind Ink by 2.55 per cent, Mastek by 2.44 per cent, and Glaxo Con by 2.27 per cent.

PTI