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Sensex recovers 80 points despite political uncertainty

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index posted a handsome gain of about 80 points to close at 3406.59 during the week ended April 23, despite the fluid political situation, which continued to dampen market sentiments.

According to analysts, the all-party decision to pass the Union Budget for 1999-2000 gave relief to the market from the political crisis. But the unclear picture on the formation of a new government continued to put pressure on market movements as major operators preferred to postpone their positions.

Heralding the all-party decision to pass the Budget without a debate, the Sensex skyrocketed by 124 points on the inaugural day of the current settlement and closed at 3451 points.

But the gain posted on the first day could not be sustained over the rest of the session. Non-passage of the Budget as scheduled earlier on April 21 demoralised the market. But it recovered the next day when the Lok Sabha passed the Union Budget, Railway Budget and Finance Bill without a debate.

Thereafter, however, the decision of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to refuse to support the Congress-led minority government increased the possibility of a mid-term election.

The healthy financial performance of Reliance Industries Limited, Rhone Poulenc, Hindustan Lever and some other companies failed to brighten market sentiments. The annualised badla (rate at which the forward deal are made) rates ruled at 8-9 per cent and the outstanding position came down to Rs10 billion on the last day of the week on the BSE.

According to analysts, the decline in the outstanding position and lower badla rates indicate a dull trend in the next week as well.

The broad-based BSE-100 index closed 37.29 points higher at 1481.85, up from the previous week's close of 1444.56 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices rose by 1.78 and 3.09 points to 338.57 and 131.89 points, against the previous week's close of 336.79 and 128.80 points, respectively. Barring two trading sessions (Monday and Wednesday) the market witnessed a downtrend through the week.

Among the major issues, ACC rose smartly by Rs172 to Rs1525, Bajaj Auto by Rs19 to Rs599, BSES Limited by Rs2.50 to Rs155.50, Colgate by Rs2.70 to Rs171.20, Dr Reddy's Laboratories by Rs132 to Rs822.50, Hero Honda by Rs90.25 to Rs890, Hindustan Lever by Rs86 to Rs2190, ITC by Rs38 to Rs940, Larsen & Toubro by Rs1.60 to Rs193.20, Mahindra & Mahindra by Rs40 to Rs240, NIIT by Rs9.25 to Rs1671.25, Procter & Gamble by Rs39 to Rs872, and Reliance Industries by Rs4.60 to Rs126.10.

The losers included Glaxo, down by Rs34.75 to Rs756, Grasim (Rs14.30, to Rs118.10), Infosys Technologies (Rs9.50 to Rs2700.50), Pentafour Software (Rs68.25 to Rs985), Satyam Computers (Rs72 to Rs1150).

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty Index gained 15.05 points to close at 982 points, up from the previous week's close of 966.95 points.

The Nifty Junior rose 36.45 points to 1789.30 points from the previous week's close of 1752.85 points. The CNX Defty closed higher by 10.30 points to 794.50 points from last Saturday's close of 784.20 points.

The S&P CNX-500 and CNX Midcap-200 rose 11.04 and 15.57 points to 678.81 and 613.16, from last week's close of 667.77 and 597.59 points, respectively.

UNI

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