Sensex down 48 points in opening trade

Mumbai, Feb 10 (PTI) The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmarkSensex fell by nearly 48 points in opening trade today oncontinued selling by foreign funds and retail investors amidconcerns over high interest rates and weak cues from otherAsian markets.

The 30-share barometer, which lost over 444 points in theprevious two sessions, fell further by 47.73 points to17,545.04 points in the first few minutes of trade today.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty,however, was trading 3 points higher at 5,256.55 points.

Brokers said continued offloading of stocks by funds andretail investors amid persisting concerns over high interestrates, the widening probe in the 2G spectrum scam and weakAsian trends, mainly dampened the trading sentiment at home.

Bucking the trend, shares of Anil Ambani group companies,which had suffered a sharp setback in yesterday''s trade,staged a strong comeback, helping the Nifty trade in thepositive zone.

Reliance Infra was trading 8.5 per cent higher, whileReliance Power gained 4 per cent and Reliance Communicationsrecovered by 4.1 per cent in opening trade today.

Meanwhile, in other Asian markets, Hong Kong''s Hang Sengindex was down 0.70 per cent in early trade this morning. PTISUN RS KPS ARV