Mumbai: The sensex opened on a promising note and later moved erratically during morning trading indicating volatile activity during the session ahead of end of account in derivatives on the Stock Exchange in Mumbai today (November 24).

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened moderately higher at 4852.12 from last Friday's (November 21) close of 4838.54 and later moved in a range between 4858.43 and 4823.08 before being quoted at 4841.25 at 10.30 AM (IST).

The market is expected to remain volatile in view of approaching expiry of November contract, as speculators normally square up positions during the concluding sessions.

Investors, however, seemed to be optimistic about the future trend as a result of net investments by Foreign Institutional Investment (FII) at the fag end of last week. The net purchases of Rs 138 crore on Friday after a slow down in FII activity for a few days, have raised hopes that FIIs would not withdraw large amount of funds from Indian markets.

Net purchase position of local funds is also considered as encouraging factor which is likely to attract retail investors to make fresh commitments, market sources said.

Among the top gainers, FACT were quoted up by 9.43 per cent, AlfaLaval by 9.10 per cent, Silverline by 8.66 per cent, Jindal Steel by 7.84 per cent, LIC housing by 6.16 per cent, Indian Bank by 5.79 per cent, Rel Capital by 5.26 per cent, STC India by 4.67 per cent and HCL Info by 4.45 per cent.

However, Marico, GACL, Hexaware, Ingersoll, HCL Tech, Hughes software and Wipro were among the prominent losers.

PTI