Mumbai: The Sensex resumed on a promising note and was trapped in a very narrow range at opening session on the Stock Exchange, in Mumbai (BSE) today (July 21,2004) on selective buying by operators as well as foreign funds.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened firm at 4973.88 as against yesterday's (July 20,2004) close of 4957.88 and moved in a very narrow breadth between 4989.48 and 4970.62 before being quoted at 4988.72 at 10.30 hrs (IST).

Operators enlarged their commitments on news that the day traders, which mainly account for major portion of the total turnover, might get tax relief, dealers said.

Retail investors and operators seemed to be buying in second-line stocks on expectation of some relief in the turnover tax, they added.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) reportedly started their buying in some blue-chip counters and were net buyers worth Rs 100 crore on Monday (Jul, 19, 2004).

Index-based shares like ACC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele, Bhel, Dr Reddy, Grasim, HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, HPCL, L&T, ITC, Maruti, REL, RIL, Satyam Computer, SBI, Tisco, Tata Motors and Wipro showed marked to moderate gains at early stages.