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Patents Bill propels drug counters, but Sensex slips 40 points to 3743.37

Barring pharmaceutical counters, equities suffered a moderate setback at the Bombay Stock Exchange towards the end of trading today following speculative selling pressure in select counters by foreign institutional investors and local operators.

The pharmaceutical counters rose sharply on the expectation that the Patents Bill would be passed by Parliament.

The market will stage another rally when the bill is passed, dealers said.

But barring these counters, there were only select gainers from the fast-moving consumer goods, info-tech and infrastructure segments.

Reflecting the trend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index opened at 3792.56 points, crossed the important mark of 3800 to touch the day's high of 3804, but fell sharply thereafter to the day's low of 3689.21 before closing at 3743.37 points, down 40.74 points from yesterday's close of 3784.11.

The more broad-based BSE-100 index eased by 3.65 points to 1635.18. It had closed yesterday at 1638.83 points.

UNI

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