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Equities drop after good start; Nifty down, 902.75

Equities could not maintain their opening level following the threat by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government over the issue of Udham Singh Nagar and Uttarakhand. Later this turned into selling pressure and lost moderately on the National Stock Exchange.

The S&P CNX Nifty closed at 902.75 points suffering a loss of 4.7 points compared to previous close of 907.45 points. CNX Nifty Junior closed at 1445.65 points against the previous close of 1444.25 points losing 1.4 points, S&P CNX Defty finished at 736.20 points from 740.20 points declined by 3.66 points, S&P CNX 500 equity index settled at 607.70 from 611.36 points and CNX Midcap 200 index was remained nearly steady at 517.72 points against the previous close of 517.83 points.

The total turnover on the exchange was 13.11 billion comprising 47.67 million shares in 176,844 trades. The debentures traded were worth Rs 1.32 million.

About 440 scrips advanced, 481 declined and 102 remained unchanged. About 23 securities hits their price brands.

The foreign institutional investors investment declined by 7.76 million to Rs 24.18 million as compared to sale of Rs 31.95 million. However, the domestic institutions and mutual funds investment increased by Rs 98.61 million to Rs 78.95 million as against the selling value of Rs 69.08 million.

ITC registered highest turnover of Rs 3.87 billion followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.67 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 896.2 million, Pentafour Software Rs 759.8 million, Tata Tea Rs 746.1 million, SBI Rs 670.4 million, Reliance Rs 653.7 million, Telco Rs 317.9 million, Castrol Rs 313.2 million, ACC Rs 251.2 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 228.8 million, Tisco Rs 193.8 million, MTNL Rs 160.7 million, L&T 158 million, Infosys Tech Rs 154.4 million, BPL Rs 129.9 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 121.2 million, BHEL Rs 105 million, HCL-HP Rs 98.1 million, Thermax Rs 81.6 million, Silverline Rs 75.4 million, Dabur Rs 75.2 million, Colgate Rs 71.9 million, BFL Software Rs 65.7 million and Nestle 61.1 million.

The top five gainers were Cochin Refineries (2.52 ), Nestle (2.36), Indo gulf (2.30), Thermax (1.83) and Hindalco (1.71). The losers were HPCL (3.77), HDFC Bank (3.32), ICICI (2.22), Tisco (1.95) and L&T ( 1.76).

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed increased trading worth Rs 8.14 billion. The newly issued 11.68 per cent government. Loan maturing in 2002 was traded for Rs 2.23 billion at a weighted yield of 11.61 per cent. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 1.94 billion at a weighted yield of 11.41 per cent commercial paper of ACC, maturing on September 29, 1998 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 8.75 per cent.

UNI