MUMBAI, May 14: Pivotals rallied smartly at close of the session on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today, buoyed by the hopes of a bonus share issue by scooter maker Bajaj Auto. This has completely changed the market sentiment. The sentiment was weak during the major part of the session but firmed towards the end on specualtive support. The closing rates showed widespread small to modest gains. The volume of business expanded.

The BSE sensitive index, which dropped to 3652.20 at the outset, later recovered smartly to finish at 3740.53 with a net gain of 38.57 points compared to the previous level of 3701.96. The BSE-100 index also recovered by 17.16 points to 1614.96 from the previous close of 1597.80.

Brokers said that, the market turned for better soon after the announcement made by Bajaj Auto that the company has called a board meeting on May 19 to consider a bonus issue. Pivotals bounced back after an initial loss of about 50 points in the Sensex on emergence of good buying support coupled with fresh purchases by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and local institutions.

Despite the reports that the petroleum ministry was examining alternative options to bridge the widening oil pool deficit, estimated at around Rs 16,000 crore for fiscal 1996-97, to avoid petro price hike, operators were hesitant to discount the oil price rise at this stage and unloaded during the major part of the session.

The volume of business recovered smartly to Rs 692.57 crore from Rs 578.23 crore. SBI remained top in list with turnover of Rs 179.66 crore followed by Reliance of Rs 122.83 crore, ITC of Rs 115.06 crore, Telco of Rs 41.10 crore and Bajaj Auto of Rs 33.15 crore.

Bajaj Auto firmed up smartly from the sessions' low of Rs 824 to finish at Rs 915.25 on specualtive support. Century Textiles recovered further by Rs 104.75 to Rs 1816.75, ITC gained Rs 8.50 at Rs 408.25, SBI Rs 3.25 at Rs 304.25, Reliance Rs 3.25 at Rs 296.25 and Tata Steel Rs 1.50 at Rs 174.50 on short covering. BSES, Colgate, Gujarat A Cement, HPCL, Hindalco, IPCL, BPCL, Castrol, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero Honda, Sterliate and Tata Tea also remained better.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE) share prices recovered on the first day of the current settlement on brisk buying activity. The NSE-50 index started weak at 1030.35 and later, rose to touch 1044.15, before closing at 1041.65, showing a gain of 10.60 from the last close of 1031.05. The Midcap opened firm at 1126.75 and after touching a high of 1140.45, closed at 1139.35, still displaying a gain of 17.05 against the last close of 1122.30. The total turnover was Rs 1483.84 crore.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.