Mumbai: The sensex opened on a steady note and later came under pressure during morning trading as operators and retailers continued to unload long positions on the Stock Exchange in Mumbai (BSE) today (Jul 20, 2004).

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened steady at 4974.52 as against yesterday's (Jul 19, 2004) close of 4975.40 but later met with a strong resistance and dipped to a low of 5936.60 before being quoted at 4957.06 at 10.30 hrs (IST), down by 18.34 points.

Brokers anticipated selling pressure in view of long positions built up by operators in the derivative segment.

The market is technically in overbought zone as a result of high positions in the Futures and Options and investors are likely to unwind their long positions, market players said.

Day-traders and arbitrageurs also were believed to have slowed down due to delay in announcement on the transaction tax rate, which is expected to be lowered in the beginning of the week, they added.

Meanwhile, the Government yesterday assured that it would "revisit" the numbers on 0.15 per cent transaction tax on all securities proposed in the Union Budget but ruled out total withdrawal of the measure.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which were net sellers for three sessions between July 13 and 15, reported net inflow of Rs 133 crore last Friday. Key counters like Tata Motors, Tisco, SBI, ONGC, Satyam Computers, ITC, Hindalco, Hero Honda, HDFC and some others were quoted substantially down on selling pressure.

However, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Lab, RIL and Zee Tele showed marked gains.