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Fertilisers, pharma, FMCG stage rally, cyclicals decline; Sensex up 12 points to 4170.83

Fertiliser shares staged a rally at the Bombay Stock Exchange on buying support from institutional investors and local operators, pushing up the BSE Sensex by about 12 points today.

According to a senior equity analyst, the main focus of operators was on fertiliser shares and selective scrips from fast moving consumer goods and pharma sectors. The cyclical stocks suffered a moderate setback on selling presssure today, he added.

Mirroring the trend, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 4166.22 points, touched day's low of 4138.95 around mid-session following a rumour of major casualties on the Indian side at the battlefield in Kargil, dealers said.

However, the Sensex staged a smart recovery and touched the day's high of 4187.38 points, before closing at 4170.83 points, showing a net gain of 12.16 points or 0.29 per cent from the previous close of 4158.67 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index gained further by 3.29 points to 1798.21 points from the previous close of 1794.92 points.

The fertilizer stocks GSFC, GNFC, Indo-Gulf Fertilizer, Spic and Zuari Agro were in the limelight, dealers said and added that pivotals like ACC, Reliance, Tisco, Tata Tea declined more or less by one percentage from their previous close.

Negotiated deals were reported at the counters led by BSL Software, Hindustan Lever, Chambal Fertilizer, Gulf Oil, Indo Gulf Fertilizer, Indo Gulf Fertilizer, Punjab Tractor, Century, Tata Tea and Thermax.

According to dealers in three big negotiated deals at the National Stock Exchange, about 495,000 shares changed hands in Thermax.

In the pharma counter, Smithkline Pharma posted an impressive gain while Pfizer lost heavily, dealers said.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed marginally higher by 0.59 and 0.22 points to 411.13 and 157.86 points from the previous close of 410.54 and 157.64 points.

Being the last day of weekly settlement at the NSE, players were busy in squaring up their positions, dealers said.

UNI

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