Mumbai: The Sensex showed signs of weakness by reacting negatively during the morning trading after an initial upsurge on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today (Mar 24, 2004) on continued selling pressure despite positive FII (Foreign Institutional Investor) inflow on Monday.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened on a promising note at 5,412.13 as against yesterday's close of 5,400.99 and later spurted to a high at 5,435.40 in the initial 15 minutes of trading. However, it met with a strong resistance and was quoted at 5,384.32 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

Discounting continued net investments by foreign funds that have made net purchases of Rs 180 crore on Monday, operators as well as retailers including domestic funds remained sellers in view of approaching end of derivatives contract as well as year-end considerations.

Brokers expected the market to remain under pressure as a result of squaring up of positions by operators and local funds as also profit booking by major corporates.

Key stocks like Infosys Tech, Satyam Computers, Wipro, Tisco, BHEL, GACL, Grasim, Hindalco, L&T, ONGC and SBI were quoted substantially lower on fresh selling pressure.

However, Tata Motor, Bharti Tele, Hero Honda, Cipla, ITC, HPCL and REL showed moderate gains.

Among the top losers, Indian Cement were quoted down at 3.69 per cent, Jindal Strip by 3.65 per cent, Ashok Leyland by 3.34 per cent, RCF by 3.31 per cent, HCL Techno by 3.09 per cent and Hindalco by 2.52 per cent.

However, FACT, Saw Pipe, Crompton Greaves, Hero Honda and Dena Bank were the prominent gainers.