COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Equities suffer moderate setback; Nifty down two points, 857.30

Share prices suffered a moderate setback at the National Stock Exchange following speculative selling pressure on the last day of current settlement today.

Reflecting the trend, the S&P CNX Nifty Index opened at 864.55 points, touched the day's high of 864.90 points, low of 851.35 points before closing at 857.30 points, showing a net loss of 2 points from the previous close of 859.30 points.

The CNX Nifty Junior declined sharply by 10.25 points to 1448.00 points as against the previous close of 1458.25 points.

The S&P CNX Defty eased by 1.40 points to 698.45 points from the previous close of 699.85 points. The S&P CNX-500 and CNX Midcap-200 closed lower by 2.13 and 1.75 points to 583.32 and 523.71 points from the previous close of 585.45 and 525.46 points respectively.

Total turnover on the NSE reported during the day was Rs 17.79 billion from trading in 68.65 million shares in 222,664 trades. Debentures traded value stood at Rs 20.69 million.

Today, 399 securities advanced, 607 declined and 124 remain unchanged. And 19 securities hit their price bands today.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 3.07 billion, followed by Zee Telefilms Rs 2.47.81 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 2.04 billion, ITC Rs 1.90 billion and Reliance Rs 1.06 billion.

other actively traded scrips were Telco (Rs 887.1 million), Tata Tea (Rs 540.7 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 448.8 million), Tisco (Rs 420.2 million), Glaxo (Rs 378.8 million), SBI (Rs 364.6 million), Castrol (Rs 322.1 million), Dabur (Rs 295.2 million), HCL HP (Rs 266.8 million), Silverline (Rs 217.2 million), MTNL (Rs 182 million), Square D Software (Rs 163.8 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 153.1 million), Raymond (Rs 149.2 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 147.3 million), ACC (Rs 141.5 million), L&T (Rs 96.2 million), Archies (Rs 85.1 million) and NIIT (Rs 70.3 million).

The top gainers were Tata Tea which closed higher at Ts 331 (Rs 306.50), Grasim Rs 179 (Rs 170), Indian Rayon Rs 109.35 (Rs 104.05), Arvind Mills Rs 32.25 (Rs 30.70) and Gujarat Ambuja Cement Rs 265 (Rs 255.05).

The losers were HDFC Rs 52.20 (Rs 54), Hero Honda Rs 554.50 (Rs 569.50), Indian Hotel Rs 350 (Rs 359.50), Asian Paints Rs 282 (Rs 289), Nestle Rs 454 (Rs 464.80).

The foreign institutional investors have made net investment of Rs 310.4 million while the Indian financial institutions reported net sales of Rs 25.7 million on the NSE today.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 2.53 billion. The 11.75 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 11.51 per cent. The 91-day treasury bill maturing on March 13, 1999 was traded for Rs 200 million at a yield of 9.48 per cent.

Debentures of Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited maturing in 2002 were traded for Rs 55 million at a yield of 17.57 per cent.

UNI

Business news