Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
Our Market Bureau
Mumbai, Nov 17: Shortcovering of positions by local punters led to a minor recovery on the local bourses, with the BSE-30 share revamped Sensitive index closing at 2,968.60 points, thus registering a gain of 23.20 points. The S&P CNX Nifty index also witnessed a minor upward correction of 4.65 points to close at 855.35 points on the last day of its trading cycle.The recovery, however, prompted the institutional participants to offload a considerable chunk of their holdings especially at the pharma and software counters. While the FIIs were net sellers on the local bourses to the tune of Rs 19.50 crore, domestic institutions sold stocks worth Rs 9 crore.
However, according to market sources, FIIs were reported to have placed buy orders at the counters of Hero Honda, Ranbaxy, Rhone Poulenc, ITW Signode, Telco and Ashok Leyland. Domestic institutions like LIC and SBI Mutual fund were reported to have bought at the counters of HPCL, Tata Tea, Madras Cement and MTNL.
Meanwhile, the Skindia GDR index alsoinched up to trade at 581.17 points registering a gain of 1.65 per cent over Monday's close. The premium spreads at the counters of SBI, Reliance and ITC continued to rise on account of the sharper fall in the underlying stocks.
On the local front, a cross deal of 20 lakh shares of 20th Century Finance was reported on the BSE. The deal which was transacted at a price of Rs 6.38 was rumoured to have been an FII deal.
Auto and MNC pharma counters continued to hog the limelight. While market was rife with rumours of FIIs led by Capital International, Credit Suisse and Jardine brokerage having received huge buy orders to be executed at these counters by Thursday, the news of capital depreciation benefits being offered for the heavy commercial vehicle producers provided a support to these stocks.
Telco at the GDR markets recovered by 8.25 per cent to trade at $ 3.41 during mid day session, while its underlying stock moved up smartly to trade at an intra-day's high of Rs 148 registering a net gain of 7.12 percent. The counter also clocked a huge volume of over 52 lakh shares on the NSE and 64.14 lakh shares on the BSE.
While Ashok Leyland was locked at the upper end of the price band at Rs 36.50 on the NSE, Swaraj Mazda was also locked at Rs 51. Besides the depreciation benefits, rumours of the company being merged with Punjab Tractors added fuel to the rally. ``Market is awaiting a trigger point, to move either ways. In the absence of a major news and substantial institutional support, the index continued to be range bound,'' explained a dealer with an FII brokerage firm.
Among the pharma counters, Emerck, Novartis (I), Rhone Poulenc and Pfizer touched new high on the BSE. Rumours of the merger of Hoechst with Rhone Poulenc led to fresh spree of purchases at these counters. Hoechst was locked at the upper end of the price band at Rs 376.90 while Rhone Poulenc traded in the band of Rs 680 and Rs 711, the new high on the BSE.
A spate of cross deals in the demat mode were reported on the BSE. Hero Hondaregistered a deal of 35,000 shares transacted at the price of Rs 570. Similarly, HPCL in the demat segment witnessed a deal of 10,000 shares at Rs 260, ICI about 18,000 shares at Rs 198 and Ranbaxy 5,000 shares at Rs 539.
On the physical segment, two cross deals were reported at the Reliance counter of 25,000 shares and 10,000 shares at Rs 121 and Rs 118.40, respectively. Unichem Lab and United Phosphorus also registered cross deals of 39,550 shares and 10,000 shares, respectively.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------