MUMBAI, April 21: The firm undertone of the market coupled with FII buying at the MNC counters saw the BSE-30 index close at 4,280.96 points, registering a net gain of 70.23 points over Monday's close. Frenzied buying at pharma counters and profit-booking at the software counters were the salient features of the day's trading session at the local bourses.The BSE Sensitive started better at 4235.37 points and, shot up further to the day's high of 4285.57 points before closing at 4280.96 points as compared to Monday's close of 4210.73 points. The BSE-100 index too flared up by 35.51 points to 1889.93 from the previous close of 1854.42.
Brokers said the operators were discounting the political developments and bulls were building fresh positions even on the last day of the current settlement on the NSE that generally witnesses squaring off business.
Domestic institutions, however, pressed sales in key scrips like Hindustan Lever, MTNL and Reliance.
The volume of business increased further to Rs1598.94 crore as against yesterday's turnover of Rs 1480.79 crore. Scrips like ITC gained Rs 16.75, Reliance Rs 4.10, SBI Rs 5.70, Hindustan Lever Rs 36.75 and Castrol Rs 1.75 on buying support.
On the NSE prices of select scrips flared up on the last day of the current settlement. The NSE-50 index opened better at 1207.20 and rose to 1218.95, before closing at 1212.75, showing a gain of 5.60 over the last close. The Midcap index settled at 1698.85, disclosing a good gain of 45.15 over yesterday's close of 1653.70. The market witnessed a total turnover Rs 1,615.79 crore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
