COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Sensex falls further

Pivotals fell further, by 11. 69 points, as domestic operators and foreign institutional investors squared up their outstanding positions on the last day of settlement cycle at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

ITC's annual results failed to cheer sentiments and trading remained dull and lacklustre. Despite the tobacco major posting a net profit of Rs 5.26 billion, the market could not respond in the same vein. Local operators were also absent as they seemed to be adopting a wait-and-watch attitude till the budget is declared.

The trading volume remained the lowest in the current cycle. There was nominal buying of index-based scrips like MTNL, State Bank of India, Hindalco and Telco by Unit Trust of India. Operators were also seen buying shares of Sterlite, Videocon and BPL, in a smaller quantity.

The BSE sensitive index opened lower at 3,914.34 points touching a day's high of 3,930.65 points and low of 3,881.83 points before closing at 3,897.10 points, 11.69 points below its previous close.

The BSE 100 index also dipped nominally by 4.85 points to close at 1,725.25 points.

The BSE-200 and dollex indices ended lower by 1.37 and 0.56 points at 391.20 and 160.50 points respectively.

The total turnover on the Bolt network was Rs 12.80 billion, with 121,585 trades and 50.8 million shares traded.

ITC registered the highest turnover of Rs 4.25 billion in the specified group, followed by Satyam Comp 1.14 billion, ACC 568.3 million, SBI 458.5 million, Pentafour s 442 million, Reliance 440.4 million, BPL Limited 430 million, Bajaj Auto 301.2 million, Castrol Ind 289.4 million, Videocon Int 265.6 million, ICICI Ltd 259.4 million, Tata Tea 245.1 million, Hind Lever 233.4 million, Telco 143.3 million and Infosys Tech 128.5 million.

The counters which witnessed active trading in the B group were Max India l 65.3 million, BFL Softwr 31.2 million, Shipping Cor 31.2 million, Him. Fut. Comm 27.2 million, Cyber System 19.2 million, Penta Communi 16.5 million, Cipla Ltd 16.3 million, Indian Oil 11.9 million, Leading Edge 11.9 million, Maars Software 10.7 million, Wipro 10.3 million, DSQ Software 9.1 million, Tata Infotec 8.9 million, Bank of Punjab 7.4 million and CMC Ltd 6.9 million.

UNI