The Sensex opened higher by 170 points, following the rise of Nasdaq on Friday night, but in the afternoon profit taking both from operators and institutions led the benchmark index to close in the negative territory from Friday close. The Sensex finally closed 10.26 points lower at 3728.67. The weak trend continued in the NSE too with S&P CNX Nifty closing 1.3 points down at 1175.45.

Dealers said that there was lack of buying interest from FIIs in the wake of uncertainty in the global equity markets. They said that the rising oil price was another factor which kept the institutional investors away from the markets.

In the New Economy stocks NIIT and Global Telesystem was up on the good financial results, while Satyam Computers, Zee Telefilms, HFCL, Infosys all moved in a narrow range.

NIIT was among the major gainers list with the stock up by 13.13 per cent at Rs 1,369 following a 57 per cent growth in the bottomline. Global Tele stocks gained 6.1 per cent at Rs 1,102.7. Ballarpur Industries and Bombay Dyeing-in the midst of potential takeover threat from Arun Bajoria were other gainers. These stocks gained 14.87 and 13 per cent at Rs 78 and Rs 129 respectively. During the day Bombay Dyeing touched its 52-week high level of Rs 131.90

Major losers of the day included HLL, which touched a new low of Rs 171.6 before closing at 173.85 followed by Castrola, Grasim and Nestle.

The mood in the market is still bearish. Dealers felt that unless institutions, especially FIIs, make active purchases the stocks prices would remain at current levels. FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 195.5 crore on Friday and during this month they have already sold Rs 621.4 crore worth of equity.