MUMBAI, May 22: The downtrend continued on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the third consecutive day on Thursday as share prices drifted marginally lower due to speculative selling pressure coupled with lack of buying support from leading market players.

Reflecting the trend, the BSE sensitive index opened at 3738.06, touched the day's high og 3742.53, declined to touch the day's low of 3714.20 and later closed at 3730.78, showing a net loss of 4.23 points over the previous close of 3735.01. BSE-100 index moved down by 3.21 points to 1608.13 against the previous close of 1611.34. BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 0.77 and 0.36 points to 361.73 and 168.27 against the previous close of 362.50 and 168.63 points respectively.

The business volume was also reported to be at a low ebb. The BSE authorities continued their suspension orders in the trading of four CRB group companies scrips namely CRB capital market, CRB Corporation, CRB Arihant Mangal and CRB share castodian. According to BSE sources, the suspension is until further notice.

Total turnover on the BSE was amounted to Rs 451.58 crore. The tobacco giant ITC stood first in the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 133.60 crore, followed by SBI Rs 99.90 crore, Reliance Rs 89.07 crore, Telco Rs 44.64 crore and Tisco Rs 11.72 crore.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters like BHEL Rs 4.03 crore, Lakme Ltd Rs 3.88 crore, Orient Bank Rs 3.73 crore, Bajaj Auto Rs 3.45 crore, Hindalco Rs 2.87 crore.

Lacklustre trading

Equities drifted lower in lacklustre trading and ended with marginal losses on selling pressure from investors at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here on Thursday. The NSE-50 index opened slightly better at 1042.45 and touched a high of 1043.80 before dipping to a low of 1034.35 and closed at 1037.20, showing a loss of 4.80 from the previous close of 1042.00. The Midcap opened at 1125.60 and closed at 1113.85 with a loss of 11.55 from the previous close of 1125.40.

The total turnover was Rs 1,110.66 crores from 430.40 lakhs shares in 1,15,934 trades. Total debentures value was Rs 40.97 lakhs.

The top five gainers in the NSE-50 index based scrips were Indian Hotel, MRPL, Cochin Refn, Indogulf and Colgate. The top five losers were IDBI, Rel Capital, Ashok Leyland, HDFC Bank and Nestle.

Marginal decline

NEW DELHI: The down-ward journey in stock prices continued on the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) on Thursday on persistant selling by operators coupled with slackness in buying activity and lost further grounds.

Meanwhile, ITC Ltd and a few other counters were in some demand among foreign investors following recently announced company's working results which had a mixed impact on the market and prices picked up slightly.

Some stock brokers said marketmen were eagerly awaiting working results of Tata group companies like Tisco, Telco and ACC which decide the future trend of the market.

The DSE sensitive index dropped from 770.75 points to close at 770.48 points.

ITC stocks was most active counter of the session as some FIIs were seen resuming buying activity at lower levels coupled with some short covering and prices recovered.

Reliance continued to remain under some selling pressure largely from bear operators and dropped by 95 paise to close at Rs 290.95. SBI, however, gained 50 paise to Rs 305.50.

Downslide on CSE

CALCUTTA: Speculatives maintained their downward trend on Thursday, which was in evidence for the last two days at the Calcutta Stock Exchange, following lack of buying interest and all round profit-booking tendency at current levels.

Operators preferred to keep away from extending their holdings, but to wait and watch the uncertainty over the probable price hike in petroleum products.The CSE-50 index lost by point two seven to close at 105.88 while the turnover remained moderate and the undertone ruled weak.

All major counters in both the specified and cash lists ended the day with losses compared to their previous levels.

ACC closed at Rs 1150.00, CESC at Rs 40.80, BOC at Rs 81.00, Hindalco at Rs 880.00, L&T at Rs 214.20, H Motor at Rs 13.60, ITC at Rs 422.90, Reliance at Rs 290.40, Tisco at Rs 177.80 and SBI at Rs 305.90.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.