Mumbai: The Sensex opened on a promising note and later remained trapped in a small range of about 25 points during morning trading on the Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai today (Sep 21, 2004) on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

Despite heavy FII inflows, local financial institutions and retail investors were believed to be booking profits in the prevailing higher price levels.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened up at 5547.49 as against yesterday's close of 5545.82 and later fluctuated in a range of 5560.58 and 5536.00 before being quoted at 5556.64 at 10.30 am.

Expecting fresh purchases from Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported net investments of Rs 481 crore last Friday, brokers said the market is likely to witness narrow movements as a result of two-way activity during the day.

Domestic mutual funds and retail investors were expected to book profits with the market is being driven by FIIs.

Blue chip counters including RIL, ITC, ONGC, HLL, Grasim, GACL and a few others showed modest losses.

However, SBI, Satyam Computers, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and HDFC were quoted moderately higher on fresh buying.