Schenectady offers Rs 57 a share for Dr Beck: American multinational Schenectady has made an open offer to the shareholders of Dr Beck and Co (India) Ltd to acquire up to 14,17,537 equity shares (representing up to 20 per cent of the issued equity share capital) for cash at a price of Rs 57 per share. The offer price of Rs 57 per equity share is higher than the current market price of Rs 51.35 (as on June 2, 1998 on the NSE).

Long-term uptrend unlikely: On Friday, the Sensexclosed at 3,417.89 points. As compared to the close of the previous week, the index lost 269 points. The loss in the values of stocks was all around as the Budget for the current fiscal presented by the BJP government did not go down well with the investing community. Though there may be a short-term correction in the downtrend it is not the time to expect the market to stage a long term up trend.

BSE to resume dealings in 2 scrips: Dealings in the securities of Dunlop India Ltd, Empire Infrastructure & Developers and Golden Carpets will resume from June 15 and June 8, respectively. The two scrips were suspended following non-compliance of these companies with the listing requirements of the exchange.

Trading in Astra-IDL shares: BSE members have been permitted to trade in the shares of Astra-IDL Ltd in the demat segment.

Videocon tops investor woes list: Videocon International topped the list of 20 companies which have the maximum number of complaints pending against them. Theexchange has received a total of 99 complaints against the company during May. Vatsa Corporation ranks second in the list with 86 complaints. BSE received 3,958 complaints against 876 listed companies during May.

Nifty loses 33.5 points: Equities crashed on the NSE on Friday following heavy selling pressure by foreign funds and speculators. The NSE-50 (Nifty) Index opened at 1,026.60, touched the day's low of 989.20 points and finally ended at 993.50 points, losing 33.50 points over the previous close. The Mid-cap Index nosedived by 101.90 points to 1,413.85 points.

FII selling pulls CSE shares down: Share prices plunged further at the Calcutta Stock Exchange on Friday following heavy selling pressure by foreign funds. The 40-share CSE index slumped to close at 1,978.13 points; the day's high and low being 2,033.39 points and 1,974.55 points respectively. ACC dipped to Rs 1,530, Tisco to Rs 148.80, Reliance to Rs 158.10, SBI to Rs 199.50, ITC to Rs 640.50, HLL to Rs 1,557.80, Bata to Rs134.70 and Telco to Rs 207.40.

MSE Index slides 50 points: Share prices declined further at the Madras Stock Exchange on Friday following heavy selling pressure. The MSE Share Price Index dropped by 50.41 points to close at 4,008.69 points. Satyam Computers, SBI, DSQ Software, Silverline, ITC and Software Solution witnessed active trading. ITC declined by Rs 7.95 to Rs 649.25, Reliance by Rs 4.75 to Rs 158.90, SBI by Rs 8.75 to Rs 202.10 and Tisco by Rs 9.45 to Rs 150.80.

DSE Index drops 16 points: The Delhi Stock Exchange witnessed another round of hammering by foreign funds which saw the DSE Index plunge 2.1 per cent, or 16.09 points, to close at 752.20 points. According to a broker, the declining trend has spread to software and other blue-chip stocks with buyers selling on fears of a further slide in stock prices.

NSE debt market turnover at Rs 745 cr: Trades worth Rs 746.85 crore were reported at the wholesale debt market of the NSE on Friday. The 11.50 per cent government loanmaturing in 2004 was traded for Rs 150 crore at a weighted yield of 11.68 per cent. The 12.69 per cent government loan maturing in 2002 was traded for Rs 30 crore at a weighted yield of 11.44 per cent while the 13.75 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 40 crore at a weighted yield of 11.37 per cent.

Demat segment turnover at Rs 10.46 cr: The demat segments of the NSE and BSE witnessed trades worth Rs 10.46 crore from 10.40 lakh shares on Friday. At the NSE, SBI saw 2,81,350 shares worth Rs 577.15 lakh change hands, 24,600 shares of Hindalco, 78,051 shares of Tisco, 52,701 shares of Reliance and 5,50,000 shares of ICICI. At the BSE, 10,400 shares worth Rs 21.16 lakh of SBI changed hands.

Skindia Index loses 4.95%: The Skindia GDR Index dropped by 4.95 per cent from 718.20 to 682.62 on June 4. The Skindia GDR Index p/e ratio was 15.67 on June 4 compared with 16.43 on June 3. The top gainers were Videocon International, Tata Electric and GE Shipping which quoted at $3.50($2.30), $290.00 ($240) and $6.60 ($6.25) respectively. Losers included Raymond Woollen, Arvind Mills and Indian Aluminium.

Call rates end at 5.25%: The overnight call money rates fell sharply owing to limited activity on Friday -- the reporting day. The short-term rates opened steady at 6 per cent and fell to 5-5.50 per cent. Later, they slid further owing to adequate liquidity and little demand to close at 4.75-5.25 per cent.

Rupee steady against dollar: The rupee was firm against the dollar in a dull and listless market on Friday. The rupee opened at 41.79, unchanged from its previous close, and held steady as corporate demand continued to be poor.

Silver recovers, gold falls: Silver prices recovered on Friday on fresh buying support. Ready silver of .999 fineness gained Rs 30 to settle at Rs 7,605. Raw silver of .916 fineness improved by Rs 20 to end at Rs 7,490. Standard gold eased by Rs 15 to Rs 4,170.

Groundnut oil prices end down: Groundnut oil declined by Rs 2 tosettle at Rs 443 while groundnut bold held steady at Rs 2,000. Palm oil gained Re 1 to close at Rs 379. Castorseed September contract moved in a narrow range s to close unchanged at Rs 1,402.