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Nifty drops by 19.35 points

After fluctuating in a narrow range, pivotals declined moderately at close on heavy unloading by foreign institutional investors and bull operators on the National Stock Exchange.

Mirroring the depressed sentiment, the NSE-50 index fell by 19.35 points to 900.55 points against 919.90 points of the previous day.

The dollar NSE-50 index also went down by 15.50 points to 735.20 points from 750.70 of the last working day.

The midcap index dipped by 35 points to 1,281.85 points from 1,316.85 points of the previous day.

The total turnover, involving 33.87 million shares in 128,093 trades was Rs 8.67 billion. The debentures traded value was Rs 10.46 million.

About 228 securities advanced, 671 declined and 62 remained unchanged today. Twentyfive securities hit their price bands.

The FIIs bought shares worth Rs 270.3 million and sold for Rs 2,80.3 million, indicating an outflow of Rs 9.96 million from the market.

Tobacco giant ITC recorded the highest turnover of Rs 2.17 billion, followed by Satyamcomp (1.42 billion), SBIN (680.3 million), Reliance (488.8 million), Hind Lever (473.2 million), Pentsfware (335.5 million), Zee Tele (321 million), Infosystech (302.6 million), Tata Tea (241.3 million), ACC (219.6 million), Telco (169.2 million), L and T (161.8 million) and Castrol (159 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic activity were BFL Software (124 million), Sqrdsfware (107.7 million), Ponds (96.8 million), Tisco (74.4 million), Wipro (59.7 million), Sundarm Fin (51.7 million), BSES (49.8 million), Aptech (38.3 million), Hindalco (37.4 million), Bajaj Auto (37 million), LML and Silverline (36.2 million each).

Rel Petro registered the highest gain of 4.52 per cent to Rs 19.65 from Rs 18.80, followed by Ponds 4.20 per cent to Rs 1,101.60 (1057.20), BPCL 0.91 per cent to Rs 320 (317.10), Hind Lever 0.91 per cent to 1,521.05 (1507.35) and TVS Suzuki 0.57 per cent to 444 (441 .50).

Ind Rayon incurred the highest loss of 7.41 per cent to Rs 170.60 (184.25), followed by Indogulf 5.96 per cent to 32.35 (34.40), Hindalco 5.70 per cent to Rs 612.85 (649.90), Guj Amb Cem 5.59 per cent to Rs 233.20 (247) and EI Hotels 5.53 per cent to Rs 196.50 (208).

The wholesale debt market witnessed trading worth Rs 2.26 billion. The newly issued 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 11.47 per cent.

The 13.62 per cent government loan maturing in 1998 was traded for 290 million at a weighted yield of 8.26 per cent.

Two repo trades amounting to Rs 240 million were transacted at a repo rate of 7.75 per cent for 14 days.

The total turnover in debentures was Rs 723,000.

UNI