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Sensex up 6.29 points

Reflecting the trend, the BSE Sensitive index opened at 3481.46, touched the day's high of 3484.73, declined to touch day's low of 3462.88 and later ended at 3484.69 points, showing a net gain of 6.29 points against the previous close of 3478.40 points.

Today was the last day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange and share prices registered marginal gains due to short covering by operators, said a dealer at the institutional investor. The foreign and domestic institutional investors also made moderate purchases at the fundamentally strong counters, they said.

Leading BSE brokers attributed the change of mood of otherwise dull market to the lowering of tension in the Gulf after the signing of an agreement between the United Nations and Iraq and United States President Bill Clinton's subsequent approval to it.

They said the FIIs entered the market after gap of long time.

The BSE-100 index gained by 2.77 points to 1503.85 points as against the previous close of 1501.08 points. The BSE-200 and dollex indices closed higher by 0.93 and 0.04 points to 333.49 and 141.39 points respectively.

Among other highlights of the day, the Netherlands-based Philips electronics nv announced a 80 per cent increase in operating profit for the year ended December 31, 1997. The board of directors of the company also proposed a dividend of Re 1 per share, which if approved will absorb Rs 5.5 million and dividend tax of Rs 4.6 million.

Total turnover reported during the day was Rs 9.8 billion.

Tobacco giant ITC topped the list of turnover by registering the highest business volume of Rs 2.4 billion, followed by Tata Tea Rs 1.9 billion, Castrol Rs 827.9 million, Hind Lever Rs 397.9 million, and Reliance Rs 39.13 million.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters like MTNL Rs 262.6 million, Glaxo India Rs 195.9 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 142.3 million, ACC Rs 131.3 million, TELCO Rs 128.7 million, BHEL Rs 113.9 million, LML Rs 83.6 million and BSES Rs 79.1 million.

Good transactions were reported from B1 group at the counters led by Hoech Mar, Hind Power, Tata Donnell, Merind (Pub), India Cement, Raasi Cement, BFL Software, Aptech, Cipla, Marico, ONGC, Elgi Tyre, Rel Pet, Flat Prod and NALCO.

UNI