Sensex pares initial gains; down by 33 pts

The BSE-30 index, Sensex, opened slightly up at 19,342.83 points and shot up further to a high of 19,416.45 on good demand, in view of higher global advices coupled with persistent capital inflows from foreign funds.

However, it declined afterwards to 19,292.09 before quoting 19,306.71 at 1030 hrs, showing a loss of 33.19 points or 0.17 per cent from its last weekend's level.

The NSE 50-share index Nifty also moved down by 14.85 points or 0.25 percent to 5,865.00 at 1030 hrs.

Major losers were HDFC Bank (1.46 per cent), ITC (1.09 per cent), Hero Motocorp (0.92 per cent), Tata Power (0.84 per cent) and Sterlite Ind (0.78 per cent).

However, Maruti Suzuki firmed up by 1.76 per cent, M&M (1.39 per cent), Tata Steel (1.14 per cent), Jindal Steel (1.12 per cent) and SBI (0.87 per cent).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,611.43 crores, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Asian stocks were mostly higher in the early trade after data showed China's manufacturing sector expanded in November.

Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea rose by 0.05 to 0.66 per cent while stocks in China and Indonesia fell 0.25 and 0.09 per cent, respectively.