Mumbai: The sensex opened marginally higher at 4846.42 and was trapped in an extremely narrow range of about 25 points during morning trading on the Stock Exchange today (Jul 6, 2004) in view of cautious approach by investors ahead of the Budget to be presented on July 8.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 4846.42 as against yesterday's (Jul 5, 2004) close of 4843.77 (RPT 4843.77) and later fluctuated in a range of 4862.32 and 4839.18 before being quoted at 4845.85 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

Banking sector remained under pressure following RBI's proposal to limit single entity shareholding in private banks to 10 per cent.

Brokers said that investors were extremely cautious in the absence of any indication on the Budget proposals. The Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) Government will present its first Budget and investors seemed to be excited about the Budget proposals.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported net investments of Rs 206 crore on July 1, and 2, were believed to be engaged in building up positions in futures and options before the Budget.

Blue chip stocks like RIL, SBI, Ranbaxy, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla and BHEL were quoted moderately up on fresh buying support. However, Bajaj Auto, Infosys Tech, ITC, ONGC, Tata Motors Federal Bank, IDBI and UTI Bank showed marginal losses.