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Settlement close pushes equities down; Nifty slides two points, 820.90

A low sentiment prevailed and pivotals suffered marginal decline on selling pressure by bull operators on the last day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange today.

Reflecting the subdued trend, the S&P CNX Nifty lost 2.30 points to 820.90 points from 823.20 points. CNX Nifty Junior index slid by 17.70 points to 1393 points from 1410.70 points and S&P CNX Defty declined by 2.15 points to 672.20 points. S&P CNX 500 moved down by 2.17 points to 564 points while CNX Midcap-200 index dropped by 6.97 points to 499.05 points.

The total turnover, involving 54.69 million shares in 178,392 trades was Rs 11.29 billion and the debenture traded value was Rs 7.66 million. About 305 securities advanced, 713 declined and 84 remained unchanged. And 31 securities hit their price bands today.

The top gainers in the S&P CNX Nifty were: Hindustan Lever 2.36 per cent gain to Rs 1655. Tisco 2.21 per cent to Rs 83.30, Tata Power 1.65 per cent to Rs 83.10, Gujarat Ambuja 0.45 per cent to Rs 201.40 and East India Hotels 0.40 per cent to Rs 235.85.

The top losers were: Ranbaxy posted a 5.85 per cent decline to Rs 473.45, HDFC Bank posted a 5.31 per cent to Rs 49, Reliance Petro 3.42 per cent to Rs 16.95, Bank of India 3.34 per cent to Rs 20.25 and India Rayon 2.99 per cent to Rs 99.10.

ITC registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.64 billion, followed by SBI New (Rs 1.05 billion), Reliance (Rs 772.6 million), Satyam Computers (Rs 771.4 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 711.3 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 646.2 million), Castrol (Rs 398.5 million), MTNL (Rs 336.5 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 314.9 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 306 million), Telco (Rs 250.9 million), Tata Tea (Rs 249 million) and Tisco (247.4 million).

The other actively traded counters were: HCL-HP (Rs 203.5 million), ACC (Rs 170.8 million), L&T (Rs 161.6 million), Nestle (Rs 123.2 million), Square D Software (Rs 94.9 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 91.2 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 86.4 million), BHEL (Rs 72.1 million), ICICI (Rs 68.8 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 64.9 million), Raymond (Rs 62.8 million) and Ranbaxy (Rs 61.2 million).

The wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 3.92 billion. The 11.40 per cent government loan maturing in 2000 was actively traded for Rs 600 million at a weighted yield of 11.41 per cent. The zero coupon government bond maturing in 2000 (series I) was traded for Rs 550 million at a weighted yield of 11.15 per cent.

The commercial paper of Reliance Industries Limited, maturing on November 30, 1998 was traded for Rs 200 million at a yield of 9.42 per cent. Total turnover in debenture was Rs 163.33 million.

UNI