Sensex (BSE sensitive index) opened on a firm at 3660.40, inched up to touch the day's high at 3662.47 but fell sharply to the day's low of 3563.15 in the afternoon trade. Sensex, however, closed above the 3600 mark at 3601.96 on renewed buying support in select scrips from institutional investors towards the fag end, but lost 38.46 points from the previous close of 3640.42. The BSE-100 index also moved down by 23.74 points at 1581.63 as against the previous close of 1605.37.

The National Stock Exchange also witnessed downtrend. The S&P Cnx Nifty index opened at 1056.85, touched a day's high of 1060.55, fell to the day's low of 1030.45 before closing at1041.20 points, showing a net loss of 10.65 points or 1.01 per cent from the previous close of 1051.85.

Bank scrips, however, continued to be gainers. Barring SBI, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank shares hit the upward circuits. ``The market may continue at this level for some days,'' said a broker, adding that marketmen are yet to come out of the hangover of budget sops and interest rate cut.

The total turnover on the BSE declined sharply by Rs 572.05 crore to Rs 1705.13 crore from yesterday's turnover of Rs 2277.18 crore. ITC stood first in the list of tunrover by registering a turnover of Rs 288.13 crore, followed by Pentafour Rs 240.54 crore, Reliance Rs 112.23 crore, SBI Rs 111.96 crore and Zee Telefilm Rs 103.23 crore.