Rumours that the increasing call rates would attract MFs to the door steps of money market instruments further unnerved the market participants who resorted to sales during the last phase of the session. The market was agog with rumours that the rising call money rates would lead to a steep rise in the carry forward rates on the BSE which also triggered off the sales at the exchange. The impact of the rising cost of funds was felt at the Telco counter, where institutions sold huge chunks with the stock losing Rs 5 to close at Rs 140.

According to market sources, London based FIIs were reported to have bookedprofits at the counters of pharma and software stocks which saw these stocks move in a volatile price band. Interestingly after a period of over two months, FIIs turned out to be net buyers on the local bourses, however to the tune of a meagre Rs 75 lakhs.

While the first phase of the session saw a sell off at the counters of ITC, Larsen, Reliance and Pentafour Software, fresh selling towards the second phase and squaring off towards the last phase saw these stocks register volatile movement.

ITC moved in the band of Rs 600.50 and Rs 614 to finally close at Rs 605 registering a huge turnover of over Rs 186 crore on the BSE. RIL continued to be in the limelight on account of the phenomenal volumes and it witnessed a net volume of over 1.27 crore shares on the BSE and 1.48 crore shares on the NSE where it closed at Rs 116, after trading in the band of Rs 115 and Rs 122.70.

Local institutions were reported to have bought stocks worth Rs 14 crore on both the local bourses. UTI was rumoured to have boughtaggressively at the counters of Infosys, R&C and German Remedies at the lower levels. In the non-specified section,DSQ Soft and Seshasayee Paper were locked at the upper limit on account of enquiries by speculators.