"There is a convergence of support levels. The index should not fall vertically however may drift downwards," said a BSE broker, Ajit Sanghvi, in the light of the support which the index would attract at 3,190 and later at 3,158 levels. On Tuesday the index traded in the band of 3,249.02 points and 3,300.44 points the intra-day's low and high, respectively.

Rumours on the results front continued to play a prominent role in influencing the trading pattern of select stocks like Glaxo, Burroughs Welcome, Thomas Cook and Nestle. Tata Tea once again emerged as a front runner at the bourses.

Rumours of the government rolling back the 8 per centexcise duty imposed earlier on `packet tea' during the annual budget of 1998, led to a fresh spree of purchases at the counter. The stock today flared up by over 5.6 per cent on the local bourses to close at the day's high of Rs 440. The counter witnessed a phenomenal volume of over 28.9 lakh shares on the bourses.

Interestingly, a leading US based FII was also rumoured to have entered afresh at Rs 400 levels to pick up a substantial chunk of the stock in the form of `participatory notes'.

On the software front, fund managers indicated the completion of the correction phase. The telecom sector continued to face the wrath of bear operators. According to market sources, all attempts made by leading domestic institutions like SBI Mutual fund and Canbank Mutual Fund to provide minor support at these counters proved futile. Bharti Telecom, Krone Communications, Punjab Communications, Punjab Wireless and Vindya Telelinks were hammered down by over 8 per cent on the bourses. However, Himachal Futuristic onceagain gained favour among the big bulls of the market. The counter has been witnessing huge cross deals on the BSE since Monday.

"Masses are inclined to buy on Wednesday (being the first day of the trading cycle on NSE) which provides an exit route to many who want to liquidate a portion of their holdings. Although the market is not expecting much from the budget the underlying expectation of something favourable could influence the markets from tomorrow onwards," explained director of Churiwala Securities, Alok Churiwala in the light of the carry-forward charges which brokers will need to pay incase they want to carry-forward their positions on the budget day.

On the negotiated segment of the BSE huge deals were reported at the counters of BFL Software, HLL and Tata Tea. SSKI reported a deal of 18,000 shares at the counter of BFL Software at Rs 897.50.

FIIs sold Reliance Industries, which brought down the index during intra-day trading but later purchases of the scrip on informed buying led to a smallrecovery in the Sensex.