Mumbai: After opening on a strong note, the Sensex fell back sharply in an extremely volatile conditions during morning trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Jan 12, 2004) on heavy selling pressure from operators and local funds.

However, investors were cautious in their approach in the light of heavy sell-off by local financial institutions last weekend, market sources said.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened sharply higher at 6,152.22 as against last Friday's (Jan 9, 2004) close of 6,119.59, but later met with resistance and dropped to a low of 6,091.39 before being quoted at 6,095.35 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

Despite host of positive developments including the Government's surprise move to cut duties sharply and the announcement of better-than-expected Q3 performance by IT major Infosys Technologies, operators booked profits at higher levels as a result of selling by domestic funds.

Local funds were believed to have continued their sales at early stages inducing operators to fall in line.

Key stocks like Infosys Tech, ACC, BHEL, Tisco, Grasim, Cipla, L&T and a few others dropped sharply on selling.

However, RIL, MTNL and Tata Motors showed marked gains fresh buying support.

Among the top losers, RCF were quoted down by 13.53 per cent, Nat Fert by 4.34 per cent, Mastek by 4.22 per cent, Grasim by 4.06 per cent, Hindustan Ink by 3.22 per cent and HCL Info by 3.19 per cent.