Mumbai, February 29: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by 189 points in early trade on Friday as funds and general investors reduced their holdings ahead of the Budget 2008-09.

BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened more than per cent lowe

On the back of continued buying interest in the heavyweights, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex is trading higher. All the segments are trading in the positive terrain.

Presently (10:52 am), the Sensex is trading at 17,842.83, up 225.23 points, whereas the broad based NSE Nifty is trading at 5,233.25, up 78.8 points.

BSE Midcap index climbed up 1.60% and Smallcap index gained around 1.57%.

Out of the total 2,193 stocks traded at the BSE, 1,570 progressed, 563 turned down whilst 60 remained unaffected.

The world's biggest private equity firm, Blackstone Group is all set to invest around Rs 240 crore to purchase 10.38% stake in Mumbai-based logistics firm Allcargo Global.

Besides, the US-based company has also expressed its intention to buy another 4.61% of the enhanced paid up equity from the open market.

Allcargo will issue 1,000 equity shares and 1,081,081 fully and compulsorily convertible debentures (FCCD), convertible into an equal number of equity shares, at Rs 934 each to Blackstone.