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NSE slips 20.35 points

Share prices declined moderately on the National Stock Exchange today following sustained selling pressure from financial institutions and lack of buying support from bear operators.

The NSE-50 Index opened nearly steady at 977.00 points, moved upward to 990.15 points, registered day's low of 952.65 points and finally closed at 956.15 points suffering a loss of 20.35 points as against the previous close of 976.50 points. The dollar NSE-50 index closed at 784.95 points over yesterday's close of 804.00 points declining by 19.05 points.

The Nifty (Midcap Index) settled down at 1317.30 points decreasing by 16.25 points as compared to last working day's close of 1333.55 points. The total turnover on the exchange was Rs 10.98 billion involving 52.26 million shares in 172,729 deals. The turnover for debentures was Rs 348,000.

ACC rose to Rs 1278.55 from Rs 1206.65, Thermax went up to Rs 149.35 from Rs 145.35, Ashok Leyland increased to 42.05 from Rs 41, Hindalco hardened to Rs 671.05 from Rs 654.40 and Bajaj Auto drifted higher to Rs 551.15 from Rs 537.90. Among the losers were g e shipping to Rs 31.35 from Rs 33.25, Andhra Valley decline to Rs 84 from Rs 88.35, Tata Power to Rs 89.95 from Rs 94.10, Arvind Mills Rs 47.15 from Rs 49.30 and TV Suzuki came down to Rs 404.50 from Rs 422.45.

The ITC recorded the highest volume of Rs 2.49 billion followed by SBIN (Rs 1.60billion), Satyam Comp (Rs 1.02 billion), RIL (Rs 894.5 million), Pentasoft (Rs 751.6 million), Zeetele (Rs 408.4 million), Telco Rs 318.9 (million), Castrol (Rs 257.6 million), Tata Tea (Rs 241.7 million), L and T (Rs 210.5 million), SqrDSware (Rs 173 million), ACC (Rs 167.4 million), Hind Lever (Rs 135.9 million), Tisco (Rs 135.5 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 118.5 million), Infosystch (Rs 111.6 million), Hero Honda (Rs 90.3 million), Silver Line (Rs 89.9 million), BPL (Rs 80.4 million), Hindalco (Rs 76.6 million), BFL Software (Rs 74.1 million), Sterlite (Rs 71.7 million), MTNL (Rs 59 million) Wipro Rs 56.7 million) and ICICI (Rs 48.6 million).

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trading worth Rs 5.14 billion. The 11.64 per cent government loan maturing 2000 was traded for Rs 750 million at a weighted yield of 11.06 per cent. The zero coupon government loan maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 400 million at a weighted yield of 10.02 per cent.

The 364-day treasury bill maturing on July 3, 1998 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 6.5 per cent. Seven Repo trades totalling to Rs 1.65 billion were traded at Repo rates varying from 7.4 to 7.75 per cent for a Repo term of 14 days.

UNI