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Prices firm up on FII support; Nifty 907.45

Pivotals firmed up marginally on hectic buying support by foreign institutional investors at the fag end in the National Stock Exchange in Bombay today.

S&P CNX Nifty opened marginally lower at 905.65 compared to the previous close of 906.20, touched the day's high of 911.80 and low of 890.95 before closing at 907.45, gaining by 1.25 points as against previous close of 906.20 points.

The CNX Nifty Junior closed at 1444.25, increased by 15.25 points over the last working day's close of 1429.00 points.

S&P CNX Defty finished at 740.20 points increased by 1.85 points over the previous close of 738.35 points, S&P CNX 500 equity index also shot up by 5.74 points to 611.36 from 605.62 and CNX Midcap 200 index rose by 8.33 points to 517.83 from 509.50 points.

The total turnover on the exchange was Rs 9.46 billion involving 38.76 million shares in 147,895 trades. The debenture traded value was Rs 1.2 million.

About 525 scrips advanced, 382 declined while 91 remained unchanged.

The FIIs turnover (provisional) decreased by Rs 17.2 million, they bought Rs 248.52 million value of shares and sold Rs 265.74 million shares, however, FIs/MFs net value increased by 9.9 million, Fis/MFs purchased Rs 39.09 million and sold Rs 29.16 million value of shares.

The top gainers including MRPL rose to Rs 15.75 from Rs 14.30, Telco increased to Rs 139 from Rs 130.65, Ashok Leyland moved up to Rs 28.90 from Rs 27.25, HDFC Bank rose to Rs 63.20 from Rs 59.65 and Mahindra and Mahindra shot up to Rs 147 to Rs 139.10. The top losers were MTNL which declined to Rs 206.15 from Rs 215.45, ACC crashed to Rs 1231.35 from Rs 1268.40, Asian Paints dips 285.30 from 290, Gujarat Ambuja Cement lost to Rs 208 from Rs 211.25 and HPCL decreased to Rs 314.20 from Rs 318.70.

34 scrips have hit price bands today. ITC registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.41 billion followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.08 billion, SBI Rs 706.3 million, Reliance 567.6 million, Pentasoft Software Rs 485.8 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 425.2 million, Tata Tea Rs 356.2 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 302.2 million, MTNL Rs 271.3 million, Castrol India Rs 205.5 million, Telco Rs 201.4 cr, ACC Rs 182.7 million, Tisco Rs 175.8 million, Infosys Tech Rs 132.6 million, Colgate Rs 109.6 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 107 million, L&T Rs 103.3 million, BFL Software Rs 97.3 million, BPL Rs 70.1 million, Silverline Rs 68.9 million, German Remedies Rs 59.2 million, Sterlite Rs 54 million, SBI Rs 51.6 million, BHEL Rs 51.1 million and Nestle Rs 46.2 million.

The wholesale debt market NSE witnessed trading worth Rs 3 billion. The zero coupon government bond maturing in 2000 (series III) was traded for Rs 300 million at a weighted yield of 10.97 per cent. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 550 million at a weigthted yield of 11.46 per cent. The 14-day treasury bill maturing on August 15, 1998 was traded at a weighted yield of Rs 6.15 for Rs 227.3 million.

UNI