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FII pressure mounts on last day; Nifty down 22 points, 832.45 points

Share prices further slid as the subdued trend continued on heavy selling pressure by foreign institutional investors and bull operators on the last day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange today.

Reflecting the downtrend, the S&P CNX Nifty index fell down by 22.10 points to 832.45 points from 854.55 points of the previous day. The CNX Nifty Junior declined by 11.80 points to 1434.05 points from 1445.85 points while the S&P CNX Defty lost 20.20 points to 665.50 points from 685.70 points. The S&P CNX 500 Index also went down by 10.97 points to 573.02 points from 583.99 points and CNX Midcap 200 index moved down by 7.12 points to 501.73 points from 508.85 points.

The total turnover in 177,273 trades, involving 48.58 million shares was Rs 11.18 billion and the debentures' traded value was Rs 2.58 million.

About 245 securities moved up, 709 declined and 97 remained unchanged. 34 scrips hit their price bands today.

FIIs today unloaded heavily shares worth Rs 571.43 million against their lower investment of Rs 189.50 million, showing an outflow of foreign investment to the tune of Rs 381.93 million from the market.

Tobacco giant ITC continued to be top on the turnover with Rs 1.92 billion, followed by Satyam Computers (Rs 1.54 billion), Reliance (Rs 877.1 million), SBI (Rs 862.7 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 772.2 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 709 million), Castrol (Rs 433.6 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 357.7 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 269.4 million), Tata Tea (Rs 262.9 million), ACC (Rs 187.1 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 168.7 million) and MTNL (Rs 163.7 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic activity were: BHEL (Rs 153.1 million), Telco (Rs 139.3 million), L&T (Rs 126.8 million), HCL-HP (Rs 122.4 million), Dabur (Rs 118.7 million), Silverline (Rs 105.5 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 104.8 million), Tisco (Rs 94 million), NIIT (Rs 90.3 million), BFL Software (Rs 77.8 million), Ranbaxy (Rs 69.8 million), Software Solution International (Rs 67.2 million).

Asian Paints recorded the highest gain of 4.56 per cent to Rs 314.05, followed by Glaxo 2.29 per cent to Rs 390.80, HDFC Bank 1.81 per cent to Rs 62, Cochin Refineries 1.73 per cent to Rs 226.85 and ITC 0.98 per cent to Rs 571.35.

Reliance Capital was the topmost loser with 7.81 per cent fall to Rs 41.30, followed by Hindustan Petroleum 7.68 pr cent to Rs 249.35, MTNL 5.64 per cent to Rs 174.05, Ranbaxy 5.53 per cent to Rs 494.15 and Hindalco 5.14 per cent to Rs 493.30.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 3.76 billion. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 850 million at a weighted yield of 11.45 per cent. The 11.78 per cent government stock maturing in 2003 was traded for Rs 700 million at a weighted yield of 11.76 per cent.

The commercial paper of Ranbaxy maturing on September 9, 1998 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 8.45 per cent. A repo trade worth Rs 150 million was traded at a rate of 7.75 per cent for a repo term of 11 days. The turnover in debentures was Rs 1.27 million today.

UNI