MUMBAI, May 7: Market operators and institutional investors preferred to remain on the sidelines on the eve of parliament session, beginning Friday. Over the next one week, the fate of the widely acclaimed Finance Bill and the 1997-98 budget (which has been hanging fire since its announcement on February 28), will be decided.

While the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) will be closed on Thursday on account of Shiv Jayanti, the National and OTC exchanges will be open.

Sentiments on the kerb also remained bearish on Wednesday, reflecting the stable price movement in pivotals. ITC for one, was down by around two per cent at Rs 404/405 compared with the official close Rs 407.25.

On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index recorded a net loss of 27.99 points, or 0.74 per cent to close at 3,753.50 against the previous day's close of 3,781.49. On Monday, the Sensex closed at 3,756.78, a marginal increase.

There have been conflicting reports about the stand various factions of the ruling United Front government would take on the budget, besides the uncertainty over opposition parties' approach. This raised doubts over the passage of the investor-friendly budget. Reflecting the mood of speculators and institutional investors, turnover on the BSE declined 14 per cent to Rs 568.07 crore on May 7, as against the previous day's figure of Rs 662.49 crore. However, the B1 group's contribution towards the total turnover doubled to Rs 72.74 crore from Rs 42.18 crore on May 5.

The increase in B1 group's turnover is attributed to the hectic activity witnessed at counters like BOI, Cochin Refinery, Digital Equipment and Kirloskar Cummins among others.

Amidst continuous purchases, the recently listed Bank of India stock attracted a circuit filter at Rs 66.75 on the BSE. The share, also listed on the National Stock Exchange at a premium of 34 per cent (to its issue price) at Rs 60.35, hit the upper limit at Rs 66.75 to record a net volume of 34.54 lakh shares.

Bongaigoan Refineries continued to move on a strong note at Rs 22.90 to record a total turnover of 1,300 shares. The share was locked at this limit on NSE where around 85,300 shares were fed into the system as buy orders with no sellers at this price.

Amidst bearish sentiments, Century Textiles' worst-ever results—despite centenary bonus -- declined by 10 per cent. At the day's low of 2,033.25 there were no takers and also hit the circuit filter.

Hero Honda continued to move upwards and touched a new high of Rs 401.25 and finally closed at Rs 400, up 8.75 per cent from previous close of Rs 365. Cochin Refinery however, witnessed hectic profit booking at Rs 154.25 levels. However, during the course of the trading session the stock price slipped by 14.68 per cent to touch the intra day low of Rs 134.50. The volume at this counter increased by 53 per cent.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.