As the operators rushed to unwind their positions during the closing hours of Wednesday, the BSE Sensex was down by 73.21 points and closed at 4824.44 against its previous close of 4898.21. On the other hand, the S&P CNX Nifty on the NSE closed marginally lower at 1410.70 against its Tuesday close of 1412. During the mid-session on Wednesday, the Indian GDRs were weak and the benchmark Skindia GDR Index was down 1.34 per cent at 938.66 points.

On Wednesday, the Sensex opened marginally higher at 4910.64, touched the day'shigh at 4914.12 and remained lower thereafter. However, during the last half-an-hour, due to heavy offloading by the operators, the index touched the day's low at 4813.54 but closed slightly higher at 4824.44 points. The Nifty opened at 1412.05, almost at its previous closing level and touched the day's high at 1430.80. Thereafter, it retreated to the day's low at 1397.70 but closed higher at 1410.70.

According to a dealer with a city-based broking house, during the day, a lot of people squared off their positions to avoid the new margins that are being imposed. In case the margins are found to be too harsh, the market can go down further on Thursday. ``So it is better to remain cautious before making any fresh commitments,'' said the dealer.

According to Rajiv Sampat at Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services, at the present moment, the markets look more balanced than the earlier level. However, for Thursday, it is better to wait-and-watch before entering the market in a big way.

During the day'strading, as the initial euphoria about Digital Equipment's excellent results died down, the scrip hit the lower circuit on the exchanges. A closer look at its results showed that the fiscal 1999 net profit had got a huge thrust upward from its sale of hardware division to Compaq and there was not any significant growth in its sales.

On the NSE, the Digital scrip closed at Rs 729, down from its Tuesday close of Rs 792.

Among the pivotals, Reliance closed weak at Rs 184 after touching the day's high at Rs 195. And after a long-time, MTNL also showed signs of weakness, so was L&T. SBI also closed lower at Rs 231 against its Tuesday close of Rs 239.

Bajaj Auto, boosted by its 10 per cent growth in sales during August, on the back of a persistent negative growth in sales during the last four months, closed higher at Rs 500.