The initial spurt in Sensex, which rose to the high of 4912.36, was due to the price gap in shares that opened up in line with closing prices on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) that had risen sharply in a special mock trading session last Saturday.

Sensex (BSE sensitive index) started higher at 4850.73 and touched the day's high of 4912.36 during the mid session. Sensex, however, declined sharply to 4765.57 before closing at 4816.01 with a net gain of 32.93 points compared to the Friday's close of 4783.08. The BSE-100 index gained by 18.63 points to 2276.97 as against the previous close of 2258.34.

Brokers said the new account commence on a better note following normal badla charges andshare prices moved up further in the initial trading session. However, several scrips attracted profit taking by foreign funds. Pharma and IT scrips registered a sharp decline on sustained selling pressure from FIIs and bull operators.

Foreign funds have been sellers, surprising market analysts who had expected them to snap up shares after recent elections. Data from the market regulator SEBI shows foreign funds have sold a net $121.3 million worth of Indian equities between October 1-21. This follows $168.4 million in net sales in September.