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Despite launch of new system,
Sensex declines

The launch of the modified carry-forward trading system failed to boost market sentiments on the Bombay Stock Exchange as share prices declined moderately on the country's premier bourse. The Sensex declined in a bearish trading due to lack of buying support from foreign institutional investors on the first day of current settlement.

According to marketmen, FIIs preferred to stay away in view of the weak trend in the global markets. Domestic institutional investor like the Unit Trust of India, General Insurance Corporation and some others made a bold support to hold the market, and therefore the fall in the Sensex was marginal, they said.

Reflecting the trend, the BSE Sensitive Index opened at 3733.31 (the day's high), drifted lower to 3707.67 and later closed at 3721.05 points, showing a net loss of 26.27 points over the previous close of 3747.32 points.

The broadbased BSE-100 Index also fell by 11.77 points to 1607.45 points against the previous close of 1619.21 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex Indices finished lower by 3.0 and 1.18 points to 361.82 and 164.77 points as against the previous close of 364.31 and 165.95 points respectively.

The total turnover on the BSE came down sharply to Rs 3.6 billion as against Friday's turnover of Rs 5 billion.

Tobacco giant ITC registered the highest turnover at Rs 1.1 billion, followed by Tata Tea Rs 408.7 million, Reliance Rs 327.5 million, SBI Rs 284.9 million and MTNL Rs 253.1 million.

Hectic activity was also observed at the other counters like Castrol Rs 124 million, TELCO Rs 90.8 million, Hind Lever Rs 85.8 million, L&T Rs 68.9 million, HDFC Rs 62 million, ACC Rs 38.4 million, BHEL Rs 32.7 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 27 million and IPCL Rs 26.8 million.

Good transactions were witnessed in the B1 group at the counters like Satyam Computer, Infosys Tech, Madras Cement, Bank of India, Aptech, Reliance Petro, Contain Corp, LML, Nicholas Pir, and Hamco Mining.

Meanwhile, the BSE authorities declared a payout on Monday in respect of a B1 and B2 group securities for settlement no 31 for the period ended October 24, 1997.

UNI