MUMBAI, May 2: Pivotals suffered a modest setback on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on emergance of profit-taking following reports of a modification in the proposed Union Budget and also likely hike in petroleum price.

The session started subdued and select scrips dropped further as the session progressed. The closing rates showed widespread small to modest losses. The volume of business remained thin.

The closing undertone appeared weak.The BSE sensitive index fluctuated between 3838.44 and 3789.64 points before closing at 3801.71 with a modest loss of 39.40 points compared to the previous level of 3841.11. The BSE-100 index sheded 13.03 points to 1633.02 from the previous level of 1646.05. Besides, the downtrend was also in view of end-account considerations and most of the operators were squaring up their outstanding position. The marketmen said "today being the last day of current settlement bull liquidation was witnessed at heavy weighted counters. The major players mainly the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased marginal amount of BSES, BHEL, Glaxo and others.

SBI declined from Rs 318.25 to close at Rs 309.75 and Reliance from Rs 308 to Rs 304.50 on selling pressure. Tata Steel dropped from Rs 182.50 to Rs 179.25 and Telco from Rs 403 to close at Rs 391.75 on profit-taking. ACC lost Rs 46.25, Bajaj Auto Rs 26.25 and Castrol Rs 9.50. BPCL, Colgate, Hero Hond, ITC, Hindustan Lever, Hindalco, HDFC, IPCL, Larsen, Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Tea also remained subdued.

Indian Rayon firmed up from Rs 360.25 to Rs 396.25 on fresh buying on reports that the company is considering a bonus issue in its forthcoming meeting on May 6, besides, encouraging working results for the year ended March 1997. Ashok Leyland, Glaxo and Mahindra and Mahindra also remained better.

On the NSE pivotal prices reacted moderately on selling pressure from domestic institutional investors and general investors and absence of market players foreign institutional investors. The NSE-50 index opened at 1074.70 points saw a high of 1074.70 points and low of 1063.75 points and closed at 1069.00 points as against its previous close of 1079.85 points, suffering a loss of 10.85 points. The Midcap index closed at 1101.80 points over the last trading day's close of 1104.65 points, losing 2.85 points. The total turnover was Rs 987.11 crore.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.