MUMBAI, April 21: Hectic FIIs' buying at the MNC counters saw the Sensex vault 70 points on Tuesday. Mirroring the firm sentiment the BSE-30 Index crossed the crucial technical barrier of 4,271 at 4,280.96 points thus recording a net gain of 70.23 points.With over 6.84 crore shares changing hands, the exchange notched a turnover of Rs 1,600.78 crore.
Frenzied buying at the pharma counter as also considerable amount of profit booking at the software counters were the salient features of the day's trading session on the local bourses.
Another prominent feature was the increased arbitrage opportunity between the closing prices of certain heavyweights on the BSE and NSE, with the advantage loaded in favour of BSE.
Stocks like HDFC, Britannia and Hindustan Lever recorded a price difference of Rs 50, Rs 13 and Rs 22 respectively.
Some of the pharma scrips which caught the fancy of both local and foreign punters were: Glaxo (Rs 451.20), German Remedies (Rs 476), Burroughs Wellcome (Rs 482.75), SunPharma (Rs 338.05) and Fulford (Rs 259.70).All these stocks touched the upper end of the weekly price band on the NSE and the daily price band on the BSE.
According to market sources, Morgan Stanley and Genesis was rumoured to have bought huge chunks of German Remedies. FII purchases were also reported at the counters of the Corporation Bank, Zee Telefilm, Exide Industries, Bank of Baroda and Reliance.
Continuous bouts of institutional purchases saw most of the pharma and MNC stocks record new 52-week high on the BSE.
Some of the stocks which touched 52-week high were : ABB at Rs 699, Britannia at Rs 608.75, E Merck Rs 283.90, German Remedies Rs 482.75, Parke Davis Rs 304.10.
``The current bull run is much beyond the valuation theory, the buying has been based on perception rather than the fundamentals,'' said a BSE broker.
Profit booking by local institutions at the software counters saw the stocks record a wider price fluctuation during the day. Wipro was traded in the band of Rs 1,440 and Rs1,578 -- an intra-day's low and high respectively, to finally close at Rs 1,507.75. Similarly, NIIT was traded in the band of Rs 1,438 and Rs 1,610 to close at Rs 1,450 and Satyam Computers was traded in the band of Rs 528 and Rs 547.
Nestle after entering the no-delivery period on the BSE traded at a premium of 7 per cent to close at Rs 443.90.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
