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Marginal uptrend pushes Nifty up to 965.70

Share prices after moving in a very narrow range, improved marginally on the opening day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange today.

Mirroring the uptrend, the NSE-50 Index or Nifty looked up by 0.20 points to 965.70 points from 965.50 points of the previous day.

However, the Dollar NSE-50 Index or Defty declined by 0.30 points to 788.45 points.

The Midcap Index improved by 10.85 points to 1460.80 points from 1449.95 points of the last working day.

The turnover, involving 44.15 million shares in 167,809 trades was lower at 11.74 billion and debenture's turnover was Rs 820,000. About 507 securities advanced, 422 declined and 88 remained unchanged. 40 scrips have hit their price bands today.

Foreign institutional investors today purchased shares worth Rs 29.04 million against their higher sale for Rs 210. 24 million, indicating an outflow of foreign funds to the tune of 181.20 million from the market.

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.58 billion, followed by ITC (Rs 2.14 billion), SBI (Rs 746.5 million), Reliance (Rs 682.3 million), Castrol (Rs 532 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 482 million), BFL Software (Rs 480.6 million), Tata Tea (Rs 412.2 million), ACC (Rs 339.9 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 272.6 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 208.8 million), Telco (Rs 194 million), L&T (Rs 181.3 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic acvitity were: Infosys Tech (Rs 172.1 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 155.6 million), BHEL (Rs 145.5 million), BSES (Rs 125.2 million), Silverline (Rs 118.5 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 100.7 million), Colgate (Rs 90.4 million), BPL (Rs 78.5 million), Bata India (Rs 74.8 million, HCL-HP (Rs 74.5 million), Bank of Baroda (Rs 71.3 million) and Hindustan Lever (Rs 69.4 million).

TVS Suzuki registered the highest gain of 6.43 per cent to Rs 466.80, followed by Orient Bank 4.27 per cent to Rs 50.10, Cochin Refineries 3.65 per cent to Rs 228.50, Ranbaxy 3.20 per cent to Rs 594.70 and Colgate 2.75 per cent to Rs 270.80.

MRPL suffered the highest loss of 3.64 per cent to Rs 15.90, followed by Bajaj Auto 3.46 per cent to Rs 648.90, Asian Paints 3.37 per cent to Rs 275.40 per cent, BSES 3.09 per cent to Rs 150.65 and India Hotels 2.99 per cent to Rs 344.50.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnseed trading worth Rs 1.72 billion. The zero-coupon government bond maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 200 million at a weighted yield of 9.11 per cent. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 150 million at a weighted yield of 11.49 per cent. The 364-day treasury bill maturing on July 16, 1999 was traded for Rs 350 million at a yield of 8.98 per cent. The debenture's turnover today was Rs 426,000.

UNI