Mumbai, Dec 28 (UNI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex moved between positive and negative, in the early trade, on a weak note in the global market following the assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Sensex today resumed with a negative gap of 58.60 points at 20,158.12 from its previous close of 20,216.72 and soon slid to 20,032.35 amid high volatility in the early morning trade.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's Index, Nifty shed more than 50 points to touch 6,024.85 in the early trade. Index frontliner, Reliance Industries moved up while ICICI Bank declined.

Tata Steel extended gains for third consecutive trading session.

IT stocks were at loss. Major markets across Asia and Europe were weak and US market ended weak yesterday.

Reliance Industries rose 0.89pc to Rs 2920. Infosys Technologies fell 0.46pc to Rs 1796 whereas Reliance Energy jumped 2.40pc to Rs 2185.70. NTPC gained 1.63pc to Rs 243.85, Tata Steel moved up 1.84pc to Rs 923, ITC rose 1.25pc to Rs 205.90, and Hindalco Industries flared up 1.23pc to Rs 213.40.

Wipro slipped 2.13pc to Rs 537.60, HDFC Bank skid 1.72pc to Rs 1715, TCS dwindled 1.20pc to Rs 1087, Satyam Computers gave away 0.75pc to Rs 448 and Cipla shed 0.56pc to Rs 214.50.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 702.64 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 787.92 crore on December 27, 2007.

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 3.56 crore in the futures&options segment yeasterday. FIIs were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 350.02 crore and bought index options worth Rs 966.32 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 1,318.11 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 1.80 crore.

UNI