COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Market turns cautious as FIIs sell; Sensex slides five points, 3162.18

Equities moved in a narrow range on the Bombay Stock Exchange in the absence of hectic buying by foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors today.

Marketmen took cautious approach following yesterday's selling by foreign funds worth Rs 600 million on Indian bourses. Today being the last day of settlement on the National Stock Exchange also restricted their activity, leading BSE brokers said.

Mirroring the trend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 3154.01 points, touched the day's high of 3176.42, touched day's low of 3151.19 points before closing at 3162.18 points, showing a marginal loss of 5.04 points against the previous close of 3167.22 points.

Prominent scrips like Zee TV, Satyam Computers, MTNL and ACC attracted good business, a BSE broker said and added that Zee TV scrip touched the day's high of Rs 700 and ended at 680, netting a gain of Rs 29 against the previous close of Rs 651. The scrip gained by Rs 77 in last two trading sessions on the proposed merger of Subhash Chandra's ZTL with Rupert Murdoch's STAR TV.

Broad-based BSE-100 index declined by 2.53 points to 1397.57 points against the previous close of 1400.10 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices eased by 0.74 and 0.35 points to 321.47 and 125.90 points against the previous close of 322.21 and 126.25 points respectively.

Market today opened at 10.30 am, late by half-an-hour as mark of respect to BSE director Justice (retd) N D Vyas who expired in Bombay yesterday.

Among the gainers, Bajaj Auto rose by Rs 7.75 to Rs 642.50, BHEL by Rs 2.70 to Rs 260, Castrol Rs 11.50 to Rs 619.25, Colgate Re 1 to Rs 432, Glaxo Rs 10 to Rs 434.75, Hindalco Rs 12.25 to Rs 491.50, Indian Hotels Rs 3 to Rs 350, M&M added Rs 7.80 to Rs 175. NIIT quoted higher by Rs 26.50 to Rs 1,334.50, Satyam Computers Rs 7 to Rs 502.50, Tata Power Rs 0.65 to Rs 93.75, Tisco up by Rs 0.25 to Rs 94.50.

Among the losers, ABB declined by Rs 11.25 to Rs 502, Asian Hotels Rs 0.80 to Rs 151.10, BSES Rs 2.70 to Rs 162.80, Cadbury Rs 5.25 to Rs 394, Hero Honda fell sharply by Rs 13.50 to Rs 579.25, Hindustan Lever eased by Rs 12.50 to Rs 1,679.50, Infosys Technology Rs 3 to Rs 2347, ITC dropped by Rs 9.50 to Rs 685, L&T by Rs 0.90 to Rs 194.80, Pentafour Software down by Rs 3.50 to Rs 394.75, Pond's by Rs 5 to Rs 1225, Reliance moved down by Rs 2.10 to Rs 121.50, SBI eased by Rs 2.30 to Rs 204.40, Telco by Rs 0.20 to Rs 145.80.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 12.50 billion.

Satyam Computers topped the turnover list with its figure of Rs 2.5 billion followed by Zee TV Rs 2.07 billion, ITC Rs 1.73 billion, State Bank of India Rs 796.4 million and Pentafour Software Rs 761.5 million.

Other actively traded counters were Reliance Rs 744.8 million, Castrol India Rs 540.3 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 260.6 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 187.8 million, ACC Rs 162.5 million, NIIT Rs 160.5 million, Tata Tea Rs 149.1 million, L&T Rs 128.4 million, BHEL Rs 122.4 million and Infosys Tech Rs 107 million.

UNI