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Mixed trend helps Nifty firm up by over three points, 839.50

Share prices, after moving in a narrow range, exhibited a mixed trend on the National Stock Exchange today.

Reflecting the mixed trend, the S&P CNX Nifty firmed up by 3.85 points to 839.50 points from 835.65 points of the previous day. The S&P CNX Defty index rose by 2.75 points to 687.45 points from 684.40 points while the S&P CNX 500 index edged up by 0.21 points to 578.36 points to 578.15 points.

However, the CNX Nifty Junior slide by 18.20 points to 1422.85 points from 1441.05 points and CNX Midcap 200 index was lower by 2.43 points to 508.99 points from 511.42 points.

The total turnover, involving 48.48 million shares, in 467,652 trades was Rs 13.70 billion and the debentures traded value was Rs 4.39 million.

About 360 securities advanced, 499 declined and 101 remained unchanged. Nearly 30 securities hit their price bands today.

Foreign and domestic institutional investors were net buyers today worth Rs 123 million and Rs 40.9 million respectively.

Top gainers in the S&P CNX Nifty index were: Bajaj Auto 6.50 per cent to Rs 597.40, Hero Honda 5.33 per cent to Rs 596.20, HPCL 4.93 per cent to Rs 261.85, Ranbaxy 4.85 per cent to Rs 576.50 and Cochin Refineries 3.29 per cent to Rs 150.70.

The top losers were: Telco 7.98 per cent to Rs 103.85, ICICI 6.21 per cent to Rs 42.30, Tata Tea 2.94 per cent to Rs 264.05, M&M 2.70 per cent to Rs 155.15 and Tisco 2.35 per cent to Rs 76.75. Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of 2.87 billion, followed by ITC (Rs 2.27 billion), Pentafour Software (Rs 1.11 billion), Zee Telefilms (Rs 1.04 billion), SBI New (Rs 981.4 million), Reliance (Rs 609.3 million), Castrol (Rs 434.4 million), HCL-HP (Rs 404.6 million), Tata Tea (Rs 310.4 million), MTNL (Rs 299 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 268.6 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 266 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 256.6 million).

The other actively traded counters were: Telco (Rs 231.3 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 194.1 million), L&T (Rs 139 million), ACC (Rs 120 million), NIIT (Rs 119.9 million) and Digital Equipment (Rs 112.8 million).

The wholesale debt market of nse witnessed trades worth Rs 1.95 billion. The zero coupon government bond maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 450 million at a weighted yield of 10.24 per cent.

The 13.70 per cent government bond maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 350 million at a weighted yield of 10.74 per cent. Commercial paper of Grasim maturing on January 11, 1999 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 11.25 per cent. The total turnover in debentures was Rs 15.95 million.

UNI