Sensex pierces 3700 points on funds buying
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
MUMBAI, January 2: Led by Tisco, pivotals rose further on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday, pushing the Sensex past the 3,712-resistance level on fresh buying by speculators as well as financial institutions (FIs).The market has shown resistance at this level in the last four days and the closing day of the current account on the BSE was considered to be important in view of the squaring off activity, which was unlikely to aid the market to break the level. The market moved in a restricted range of 3,739.38 to 3,701.40 but remained bullish following fresh buying from Calcutta operators and FIs, who were reported to have made good purchases at the counters of Tata Steel, SBI and Tata Tea. The activity had shifted to second-line stocks and operators even bought shares of medium sized but dividend paying companies from the B1 section, indicating revival of investors' confidence. The BSE Sensitive Index touched an intra-day high at 3,740, but profit-booking by some institutions pared gains and
the Sensex closed at 3,719.85, up 25.23 points over the previous close. The BSE-100 index moved up by 9.10 points to 1,614.28. Operators were also expecting foreign funds to enter the market in a big way during the next few days. According to dealers, foreign funds are unlikely to wait for the election results to be announced as they would have to decide about their current year's fund allocation before the month-end.The market has consolidated its position and the Sensex can cross the 4000-mark within a short period, except for some profit-booking on a short-term basis at another resistance of 3,840, they added. The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted marginally up at 361.58 and 153.34 compared with Thursday's close of 358.85 and 152.29 respectively. The volume of business was slightly better at Rs 636.78 crore. ITC remained on the top by recording the highest turnover of Rs 130.95 crore, followed by Tata Tea (Rs 84.04 crore), SBI (Rs 71.25 crore), Reliance (Rs 45.09 crore) and Telco (Rs 34.24
crore). Market leader ITC was fractionally up at Rs 623.50 from the previous close of Rs 623. Reliance moved up by a rupee to Rs 169.75, SBI by Rs 4 to Rs 249.75, Telco by Rs 7.75 to Rs 307, Tisco by Rs 6.75 to Rs 141.50 and Tata Tea by Rs 4.50 to Rs 431.25. Castrol eased by Rs 1.50 to end the session at Rs 747.50.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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