Dealers said that fears of further downslide in the next week as FIIs expected to press sales in the next settlement ahead of the year-end led to lot of unwinding. On Friday, the market opened at the yesterday's levels with very little activity. However, as the recomendation of B D Shah Committee were flashed during trading session, the Sensex inched marginally higher to 2826.16 points. However, someselling by foreign funds saw it falling to a low level of 2772.04 points, but support from domestic institutions helped it closing higher at 2783.10 points. According market sources, UTI did not enter the market on Friday while most of the FIIs were sellers. The LIC and GIC have made marginal purchases in scrips like Corporation Bank, SBI and MTNL counters, they added. Despite these purchases, Corporation Bank touched an all-time-low of Rs 83.25. Domestic institutions and operators continue to make purchases at pharma counters.

SBI Mutual Fund has reported to have bought Glaxo Limited at lower levels. Pfizer Ltd touched the 52-week high at Rs 775, but closed lower at Rs 764.25.Among the pivotals, Telco and Satyam Computer's witnessed heavy selling. According to market sources, Genesis Fund offloaded around 10 lakh shares of Telco. Even Templeton AMC was a seller at Telco counter. Telco's scrip fell by Rs 5 to close at Rs 115.2, nearly 65 lakh shares changed hands at the counter. According to a dealer witha leading brokerage house, ``Experts seem to be skeptical about Telco's Indica launch before year-end.'' Even the negative growth reported in sales for the period of April-October further added to the negative sentiment, he further added. As per the figures released by the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM) on Friday, Telco has lost substantially in both heavy and light commercial vehicles. Telco's HCVs and LCVs posted negative growth of 16.67 and 45.10 per cent respectively for the period of April to October.

As per market sources, Morgan Stanley AMC had booked profits in BHEL by selling two lakh shares. The scrip closed at Rs 229.7 as against the yesterday's close of Rs 235.9. FIIs also made purchase, but in small quantities, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) was reported to have bought Tata Infotech while HSBC was buyer at Procter & Gamble counter. HLL, which fell to Rs 1567 as against Thursday's close of Rs 1585, has substantially contributed to 42 point fall in the Sensex.

A lot ofactivity was witnessed at the Archies Greeting counter. The scrip closed lower at Rs 388. ``There was a rumour of company planning to declare an interim every quarter.'' said one dealer. The company paid an interim of 20 per cent for the quarter ended September 30, 1998. Only a few scrips like Sterlite Industries were an exception to the downward trend.