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Bulls, FIs drop hints of a pre-Budget rally; Sensex up 24 points, 3337.49

Share prices gained moderately at the Bombay Stock Exchange following renewed buying interest from bull operators and institutional investors on the last day of the weekly settlement today.

According to analysts, infotech, pharma and telecom counters witnessed hectic activity.

Digital Equipment and Citicorp Securities reported volatile trading with the DE share touching the upper circuit twice before touching downward circuit once at the National Stock Exchange.

Leading BSE brokers hinted at the pre-Budget rally and hoped that the trend is likely to be in the upward direction at least during the annual Budget.

Reflecting the uptrend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 3323.17 points, touched the day's high of 3351.84 points, fell to the day's low of 3319.34 points, before closing at 3337.49 points, showing a net gain of 24.09 points as against the previous close of 3313.40 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index rose by 10.44 points to 1468.12 points from the previous close of 1457.68 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed higher by 2.83 and 1.01 points to 339.60 and 133.16 points as against the previous close of 336.77 and 132.05 points respectively.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day was Rs 15.95 billion.

Pentafour Software stood first in the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 3.03 billion, followed by ITC Rs 1.72 billion, Satyam Computer Rs 1.57 billion.

Other actively traded scrips were Tata Tea (Rs 927.7 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 776.1 million), Glaxo India (Rs 478.4 million), MTNL (Rs 414.8 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 414.2 million), Reliance (Rs 369.2 million), Telco (Rs 341.4 million), ACC (Rs 292.5 million), Ranbaxy (Rs 240 million), SBI (Rs 237.7 million), L&T (Rs 213 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 202.7 million).

Among the issues, Asian Hotels rose by Rs 4.40 to Rs 199, Bajaj Auto Rs 7 to Rs 532, BSES Rs 2.90 to Rs 139.50, Colgate Rs 1 to Rs 174, Dr Reddy's Rs 8 to Rs 622, Glaxo Rs 23 to Rs 695, Hindustan Lever Rs 3.50 to Rs 2026.50, India Hotel Rs 1.50 to Rs 381.50, ITC Rs 6.75 to Rs 850, Larsen & Toubro Rs 5.40 to Rs 179.40, Mahindra & Mahindra Rs 1.20 to Rs 197, NIIT up by Rs 72.50 to Rs 2408, Pentafour Software Rs 38 to Rs 883, Pfizer Rs 15 to Rs 1009, Satyam Computer Rs 41 to Rs 948, Telco Rs 2.70 to Rs 207.50, Tisco up by 70 paise to Rs 117.50.

The losers were BHEL which eased by Rs 2.10 to Rs 243.90, Cadbury's Rs 4.50 to Rs 571, Dabur India Rs 22.25 to Rs 622.25, German Remedies Rs 40 to Rs 733.25, Hindalco Rs 6 to Rs 456, Nestle Rs 2 to Rs 505, SBI Rs 1.50 to Rs 154.80.

UNI

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