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Blacklist episode, comet-satellite clash fear push new Sensex down 30 points; 2945.40

The market suffered a moderate setback on the first day of the weekly trading cycle at the Bombay Stock Exchange as equities across the board reported a decline following speculative selling pressure, pushing down the Sensex by about 30 points today.

US President Bill Clinton's decision blacklisting of 40 Indian companies as part of US sanctions has affected market sentiment badly, while the possible threat of comet Tempel-Tuttle to the satellites being used by the stock exchange and the meteorids shower this week also restricted the market activity, dealers said.

According to analysts, except ACC, Gujarat Ambuja and Ranbaxy, most of the scrips declined today.

Foreign institutional investors did not took active participation while the domestic institutional investors also had limited activity, they said.

The restructured 30-scrip Sensex, with the inclusion of Infosys Tech, Castrol, NIIT and Novartis which became effective from today on the BSE, opened at 2953.53 points, touched the day's high of 2972.80 points, fell to the day's low of 2939.67 points before closing at 2945.40 points, showing a net loss of 30.72 points as against the previous close of 2976.12 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index drifted lower by 13.65 points to 1311.88 points from the previous close of 1325.53 points.

The engineering and construction giant L&T, which is one of the prominent companies blacklisted by the US alongwith 39 other firms, came under selling pressure when market opened for the day. L&T opened at Rs 154, lower from the previous close, fell to Rs 152.40 and remained steady towards the close, showing a net loss of Rs 5.60 over Friday's close of Rs 158.

According to a report, stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong and London witnessed a sharp rise today.

The benchmark Nikkei Index at Tokyo closed at 14428.27, up by 160 points, Hang Seng index at Hong Kong gained 300 points to close at 10298.00 while the FTSE-100 at London quoted higher by 67 points at 5530.90 soon after the opening, dealers said.

Back home, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices finished lower by 2.18 and 0.89 points to 303.60 and 119.41 points from Friday's close of 305.78 and 120.30 points respectively.

The total turnover on the screen-based trading system of the BSE stood at Rs 8.82 billion.

ITC topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 1.22 billion, followed by Reliance Rs 1.09 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 747.5 million, SBI Rs 662.8 million and SBI Rs 662.8 million.

Other actively traded counters were Telco (Rs 560.1 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 534.5 million), ACC (Rs 272.9 million), Tata Tea (Rs 269.4 million), Glaxo India (Rs 234.5 million), Tisco (Rs 180.6 million), L&T (Rs 147.1 million), Castrol India (Rs 113.1 million) and MTNL (Rs 94.7 million).

Among the issues, Bajaj Auto gained by Re 1 to Rs 563, BSES Rs 0.70 to Rs 157.50, Cadbury's Rs 8.75 to Rs 386.25, Grasim Rs 3.90 to Rs 164.60, NIIT Rs 4 to Rs 1335.25, Ranbaxy Rs 8.75 to Rs 524.75.

The losers included BHEL which dropped by Rs 12.20 to Rs 253.10, Castrol Rs 2 to Rs 641.25, Dr Reddy's Rs 0.50 to Rs 446.75, Glaxo Rs 19.50 to Rs 554.50, Hero Honda Rs 1 to Rs 573, Hindustan Lever Rs 15.25 to Rs 1604.50, Hindalco Rs 8 to Rs 544.25, Infosys Technologies Rs 11.25 to Rs 2381.00, ITC Rs 7.75 to Rs 721, Pentafour Software Rs 2.75 to 581.25, Reliance Rs 3.40 to Rs 118.20, Satyam Computers Rs 7.75 to Rs 578.50, SBI Re 0.90 to Rs 160.50, Telco Rs 1.80 to Rs 138.70, Tata Tea Rs 6 to Rs 306 and Zee Telefilms Rs 14.50 to Rs 639.25.

UNI

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