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Sensex almost steady, loses 0.89 point

The foreign institutional investors continued their selling at select counters. However, it was not in a big way. And the domestic institutional investors which had extended their support last week stayed away from the market today, leading BSE brokers said.

Reflecting the trend, the BSE Sensitive Index opened at 3479.41, touched the day's high of 3493.21 points, fell sharply to touch a day's low of 3455.86 points and later recovered to close at 3468.19 points, showing a net loss of 0.09 points over the previous close of 3469.19 points, showing a net loss of 0.89 points over the previous close of 3469.08 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index declined by 1.42 points to 1502.96 against the Friday's close of 1504.38 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex Indices finished at 337.79 and 145.51 points.

The total turnover on the screen-based trading system of the BSE reported during the day was Rs 7.2 billion. The total traded shares were 25.6 million.

ITC topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover at Rs 3.8 billion, followed by State Bank of India Rs 831 million, Reliance Rs 774.8 million, Tata Tea Rs 44.15 million and Castrol Rs 154.2 million.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters like HDFC Rs 108.8 million, TISCO Rs 79.7 million, Hind Lever Rs 68.7 million, MTNL Rs 67.4 million, Colgate Rs 66.8 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 65.9 million, ACC Rs 62 million, BHEL Rs 42.4 million and BSES Rs 20 million.

Other actively traded scrips in B1 group includes Corporation Bank, Satyam Comp, Marico, Infosys Ind, Dig Equip, Asian Electr, Flat Prod, Madras Cem, Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Hind Oil Exp, Dalmia Bh, LML, Rel Pet and Astra.

Britannia gained smartly on the report of clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board allowing it to raise the equity holding of the FIIs. The scrip registered a gain of Rs 12.35 to Rs 435.75.

The successive launch of MTNL GDR which also reflected in the rise of MTNL scrip on the BSE by 3.75 to Rs 221.

Among other gainers, Asian Paint up by Rs 1.25 to Rs 285.25, Castrol up by Rs 1.50 to Rs 688.50, Guj Amb Cem gained by Rs 1.25 to Rs 328.25, IDBI hardened by Re 1 to Rs 83.00, State Bank increased by 5 to Rs 216.75 and Tata Tea firmed up by Rs 6 to Rs 364.50.

The issued lost during the day were includes Century lost by Rs 4.50 to Rs 50.50, Grasim declined by 1.25 to Rs 328.25, Hind Lever moved down by 14.50 to Rs 1332.25, Hindalco drifted lower by Rs 5 to Rs 790, Ponds India down by Rs 9.25 to Rs 938.25, ITC fell sharply by Rs 13.50 to Rs 619.50.

UNI