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Settlement opens under selling pressure; Nifty steady at 868.85

Share prices, after initial buoyancy, drifted marginally lower towards close on selling pressure by domestic institutions and bull operators on the opening day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange today.

Reflecting the downtrend, the CNX Nifty Junior Index eased by one points to 1447.15 points and S&P CNX 500 moved down by 1.50 points to 589.63 points . However, the S&P CNX Nifty edged up by 0.15 points to 868.85 points and S&P CNX Defty improved by 0.20 points to 712.10 points. The CNX Midcap 200 also looked up by 0.29 points to 519.17 points.

The total turnover, involving 70.66 million shares in 222,821 trades was Rs 15.34 billion and the debenture traded value was Rs 3.3 million.

About 633 securities advanced, 383 declined and 74 remained unchanged. And 49 securities hit their price bands today. Foreign institutional investors made a net investment worth Rs 169.7 million while domestic institutions were net sellers worth Rs 106.2 million.

The top gainers include Hindalco which improved to Rs 547.10 from Rs 517.35, HDFC Bank Rs 57.15 (55), ICICI Rs 52.55 (50.85), Ranbaxy Rs 512.55 (497.35) and Orient Bank Rs 42.35 (41.15).

The top losers were: Tata Power declined to Rs 90.10 from Rs 96.05, IPCL Rs 59.25 (61.80), Indian Rayon Rs 111.85 (115.45), Arvind Mills Rs 33.75 (34.60) and Gujarat Ambuja Cement Rs 224.60 (229.20).

ITC registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.90 billion, followed by Pentafour Software (Rs 1.74 billion), Satyam Computers (Rs 1.70 billion), Zee Telefilms (Rs 1.16 billion), SBI New (Rs 1.02 billion), Reliance (Rs 989.3 million), Castrol (Rs 676.1 million), Telco (Rs 571 million), ACC (Rs 262. 3 million), ICICI (Rs 254.5 million), Tata Tea (Rs 244.1 million), HCL-HP (Rs 204.6 million) and Tisco (Rs 202.2 million).

The other actively traded counters were: Digital Equipment (Rs 200.3 million), L&T (Rs 192.7 million), Sterlite (Rs 167.3 million), MTNL (Rs 127.2 million), BHEL (Rs 121.2 million), Hindalco (Rs 113.3 million), Software Solutions International (Rs 109.8 million), NIIT (Rs 91.8 million) and Infosys Technologies (Rs 82.3 million).

The wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed increased activity with trades worth Rs 5.56 billion. The 11.40 per cent government loan maturing in 2000 was traded for Rs 650 million at a weighted yield of 11.35 per cent. The zero coupon government bond maturing in February 1999 was traded for Rs 400 million at a weighted yield of 9.67 per cent.

Commercial paper of L&T Limited maturing on February 1, 1999 was traded for Rs 10 million at weighted yield of 10.58 per cent, two repo trades totalling to Rs 200 million were transacted at a repo rate of 8.70 per cent and 8.75 per cent for 14 days. Total debenture traded value today Rs 30.23 million.

UNI

UNI

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