MUMBAI, SEPT 20: After a firm spell, pivotals on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) reacted on emergence of profit-taking coupled with lack of speculative buying at the higher level. Select software and pharma shares, however, attracted fresh buying. The 30-share BSE sensitive index (Sensex) started better at 4658.83 and surpassed the 4700-mark during the mid-session touched at 4725.55. However, the Sensex dropped thereafter to 4635.32, before closing at 4641.07, showing a net gain of 22.68 points as against the previous close of 4618.39. The BSE-100 index recovered by 17.75 points to 2124.76 as against Friday's close of 2107.01.Brokers said the sentiment was firm during during the earlier part and Infosys Technologies crossed the Rs 7000 mark while Zee Telefilm too surpassed Rs 4000-mark before closing at 3995. There was brisk trading activity at Dr Reddy and Wockhardt counters on sustained buying support from local operators and foreign funds. FIIs bought selectively while the domestic institutionalinvestors continued their selling spree in fundamentally strong counters. Specified shares like NIIT, McDowell, Wockhardt and Tata Elexsi hit the upper circuit filter after exhausting the daily price limit.Meanwhile on the NSE, shares met with profit selling and prices reacted with both foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic funds indulging in fresh offerings. The market opened on a positive note but declined during the end of trading session to close slightly lower. Mirroring the general trend, the S&P CNX Nifty started better at 1359.80 and later declined to close at 1357.85, showing a moderate fall of 1.85 over the previous close of 1359.70.
