The sale price would be at Rs 14.70 per unit for November and Rs 14.80 per unit for December.

The repurchase price has increased by 15 paise for November over that of October and by 10 paise for December over that of November. The sale price has also increased by 15 paise for November and by 10 paise for December.

The sale price was at Rs 14.55 for October, up from Rs 14.40 from the previous month and the repurchase price was at Rs 14.25 for October, up from Rs 14.10 in September.

The move to hike the sale and repurchase prices in keeping with the existing practice is to send out a positive signal to the market that UTI is capable of meeting redemption pressure even if it is at a higher price than that of October, when the news of UTI's ill-health hit the headlines.

UTI hadalways maintained that there was no crisis and that it would keep the repurchase price higher. It is felt that the increased repurchase and sale price would give the investors ample confidence that there is nothing to worry, UTI sources said.

Explaining the predicament of the US-64 in July, UTI chairman PS Subramanyam had, in a statement that appeared in all the leading dailies of the country, said: "There was a sharp and sudden fall in the stock price index by 21.5 per cent between May 5 and June 30 which has been attributed to several adverse external events. Consequently, there was a notional depreciation in the value of US-64 investment of the order of Rs 3,566 crore as on June 30, while there was no depreciation on May 5. The board of trustees with the concurrence of its auditors decided that this notional depreciation in the value of US-64 be charged to the reserves account. As a result, the reserves account showed a notional negative balance of Rs 1,098.49 crore."

In fact, subsequent to theappearance of the public announcement by UTI chairman, fresh sales of US-64 picked up, which were at Rs 60 crore till October 14, to Rs 120-140 crore as on October 20.

The amount of repurchases according to the last figures released by UTI during the first few days of the month amounted to about Rs 650 crore.

The Trust has, since the beginning, been saying the sales will pick up in the last part of the month as is the tradition while the repurchases would be less.

Top UTI officials, including its chairman PS Subramanyam, were not available for comment.