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Pivotals flounder after firm start, Nifty down to 932.6

After a firm start, pivotals moved in a narrow range before declining towards the end of trading session, on the National Stock Exchange, despite continuous buying support from foreign institutional investors.

Mirroring the trend, the S&P CNX Nifty opened higher at 938.15 points, touched the day's high of 949.85 before closing at 932.60 points, showing a net loss of 5.25 points against the previous close of 937.85 points.

The S&P CNX Defty Index closed slightly lower by 0.75 points to 1450.15 against the previous close of 1450.90, CNX Nifty Junior also drifted lower by 4.80 points to 759.55 against the previous close of 764.35.

The S&P CNX 500 equity registered a gain of 0.20 points to 622.51 against the previous close of 622.31 while the S&P CNX Midcap 200 index lost by 0.38 points points to 524.79 against the previous close of 522.17 points.

The market witnessed a turnover of Rs 13.92 billion comprising 46.71 million shares in 179,432 trades. Debentures turnover was at Rs 676,000.

Meanwhile, 395 securities advanced, 546 declined and 81 held steady with 35 hitting their price bands.

The most actively traded securities were ITC with a turnover of Rs 3.92 billion and Satyam Computers with a turnover of Rs 2.33 billion.

FIIs' buy value was Rs 299.11 million against the sell value of Rs 207.74 million. FIIs' net investment stood at Rs 83.37 million. The FIs and mutual funds buy value was Rs 66.3 lakh against the sell value of Rs 423.01.

Other actively traded securities were SBI (Rs 858.4 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 848.7 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 759.2 million), Reliance (Rs 471.6 million), ACC (Rs 407 million), Castrol (Rs 347.2 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 314.5 million), BHEL (Rs 295.8 million), Tata Tea (Rs 220 million), MTNL (Rs 219 million), BFL Software (Rs 198.1 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 166.4 million), Telco (Rs 163 million), Bata India (Rs 160.2 million), L&T (Rs 144.3 million), Silverline (Rs 136 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 97.1 million), Tisco (Rs 90.8 million), Nestle (Rs 84.1 million), HCL-HP (Rs 82.7 million), NIIT (Rs 71.8 million), Software Solutions (Rs 67.3 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 56.7 million).

Top five S&P CNX Nifty gainers include MTNL closed at Rs 206.30 (191.90), Cochin Refineries at Rs 235.45 (225.15), Asian Paints at Rs 291.70 (282.60), ICICI at Rs 79.15 (77.30) and Thermax closed higher at Rs 183.95 (179.75).

The top S&P CNX Nifty losers were BHEL closed at 216.35 (229.85), ITC at Rs 634.40 (659.75), HPCL at Rs 324 (336.50), India Rayon at 142.35 (147.35) and Tata Chem at 110.30 (114.15).

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trading worth Rs 4.73 billion. The 13.65 per cent government loan maturing in 1998 was traded for Rs 350 million at a weighted yield of 6.99 per cent. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 11.48 per cent. The 91-day treasury bill maturing on October 10, 1998 was traded for Rs 150 million at a weighted yield of 7.70 per cent.

The commercial paper issued by Sterlite Industries Limited maturing on October 20, 1998 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of ten per cent.

UNI