Mumbai, July 24: Uncertainty continued to loom large over local bourses on Friday despite a sharp recovery in the Japanese markets. In the absence of adequate buying support from institutions, the 30-share BSE Sensitive Index, which moved wildly in the band of 3,157.30 points to 3,231.50 points -- the intra-day low and high respectively -- finally closed at 3,171.30 points, registering a net loss of 56.22 points.The Nifty Index witnessed a fall of 14.30 points to close at 920.10 points.
Brokers said most pivotals fell sharply to touch new lows on the BSE. Reliance continued its downward march for the third consecutive day today to touch a new low of Rs 132.60, which, according to market players, is an effective support level. However, the market is agog with rumours that the stock could test a new low of Rs 115.
Other pivotals which traded at new lows included HPCL at Rs 337.50, Indian Hotels at Rs 326, Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs 168.20, Tata Chemicals at Rs 108.30 and Telco at Rs 126.20.
"Uncertaintyis in the air. All bad news seems to be pouring at the same time," said BSE broker Neel Dalal while explaining the impact of the devaluation of the Japanese currency on the Indian rupee.
According to market sources, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) led by Jardine Fleming have been pressing huge sales at the counters of Telco, SBI, BSES, Colgate-Palmolive, Kirloskar Cummins, ITC, HPCL, VSNL and MTNL. On the NSE, the FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 0.41 crore.
However, selective FII buying was also reported in stocks like Zee Telefilms. Market sources said Credit Lyonnais and Cargil Bharat Fund placed huge buy orders on July 23. Other stocks which have been identified on the FII buy list include Bhel, Tata Tea, Novartis, Pfizer, Glaxo and Satyam Computers.
Market sources said the support extended by several nationalised banks has proved to be a godsend for many small-time brokers. According to them, local banks like Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab National Bank, SBI Domestic Treasury, Bank ofBaroda, UTI Bank and select insurance companies like New India Assurance, GIC and United Insurance have been slowly returning to the local bourses. Many of their trades have been registered in the demat segment of the exchanges.
According to market sources, a negotiated deal of 1 lakh shares was executed on the BSE at the counter of Satyam Computers, while on the NSE the stock recorded a trade-to-trade segment deal of 40,000 shares.
While the discussions on the payment crisis at BSE continued to take centrestage in the parliament, BPL and Videocon International were hammered to their intra-day low on the NSE.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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