The BSE sensitive index opened marginally up at 4174.61 and later moved downwards to the intra-day low of 4121.39 before closing at 4140.73 with a modest loss of 30.10 points compared to the yesterday's close of 4170.83. The BSE-100 index eased by 7.70 points to 1790.51 from the previous close of 1798.21.

The sentiment was affected due to lack of follow-up support. However, foreign funds and domestic financial institutions have reportedly engaged in purchasing key scrips like ITC, Hindustan Lever, Pentafour Software and Satyam Computer besides a select few cyclical stocks

Generally, operators enter into fresh positions on the opening day of the new account butthe unfavourable situation prevented them from doing so even though the new account started on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today.

Of the 149 specified scrips, 105 registered small to sharp losses while 41 with majority of low-priced counters advanced and three held steady. Satyam Computer was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 166.52 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 1219.69 crore remarkably lower than Rs 1452.09 crore posted yesterday.

The market leader, Satyam Computer dipped by Rs 5.85 to Rs 1267.95, SBI by Rs 3.65 to Rs 236.85, Hindustan Lever by Rs 19 to Rs 2380 and Telco by Rs 7.65 to Rs 205.30. However, Pentafour Software gained Rs 8 at Rs 1140, ITC Rs 10.50 at Rs 1095.50 and Tisco Rs 1.20 to Rs 140.