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BSE dives by over 50 points

Prices fell sharply on the Bombay Stock Exchange following speculative selling pressure by local operators and lack of buying support from institutional investors.

The sentiments were affected badly due to the failure of the talks between the United Front and the Congress to resolve the political crisis in New Delhi.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 3640.75 points. It touched a low of 3554.77 points but recovered to close at 3598.37 points, showing a net loss of 52.51 points over the previous close of 3650.88 points.

The BSE-100 index drifted lower by 22.84 points to 1555.53 points against the previous close of 1578.37 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 5.36 points and 2.35 points to 347.48 points and 161.42 points against the previous close of 352.74 points and 163.77 points respectively.

Commenting on the day's trading, BSE Director Rajendra Banthia said that the market suffered a setback due to the fluid political situation and the end would definitely depend on Friday's vote of confidence motion scheduled to come up in the Parliament against the UF government.

Foreign institutional investors bought about 500,000 shares of MTNL. Speculative buying was witnessed at the ITC counter while company circles made considerable purchases in Reliance.

The turnover on the BSE was Rs 6.34 billion. Market leader State Bank of India stood first in the list of turnover by registering Rs 2.07 billion, Reliance Rs 1.52 billion, ITC Rs 1.29 billion, MTNL Rs 220.8 million and BHEL Rs 151.6 million.

Hectic activity was observed at other counters like ACC Rs 130.3 million, TELCO Rs 111.8 million, Colgate Rs 55 million, BSES Rs 49.1 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 39.8 million, Hindalco Rs 32.5 million, IPCL Rs 30.5 million and Sterlite Rs 30 million respectively.

The National Stock Exchange

Pivotals declined moderately following speculative selling pressure.

The NSE-50 index opened at 1024.45 points, touched a high of 1024.70 points, declined to a low of 1000.30 points and closed at 1008.35 points, showing a net loss of 21.95 points over the previous close of 1030.30 points.

The Midcap Index drifted lower by 18.30 points to 1070.30 points against the previous close of 1088.60 points.

The turnover was Rs 15.509 billion.

Tobacco Giant ITC topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 5.09 billion, followed by State Bank of India Rs 4.62 billion, Reliance Rs 3.27 billion, ACC Rs 544.3 million and TISCO Rs 329 million.

Hectic activity was also observed at counters like TELCO Rs 225.9 million, Larsen and Toubro Rs 159.7 million, MTNL Rs 155.3 million, BHEL Rs 132.6 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 89.6 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 47.4 million, Colgate Rs 45.5 million, Infosys Tech Rs 36.1 million, IPCL Rs 35.7 million, Sterlite Rs 33.9 million, Tata Power Rs 30.8 million, Oriental Bank Rs 28.8 million, Ranbaxy Rs 27.3 million, Hindalco Rs 25.9 million, Castrol Rs 25.5 million, Glaxo Rs 15.9 million, VSNL Rs 15 million, Gujarat Ambuja Rs 14.8 million and Bata India Rs 14.3 million.

The top five losers on the NSE were Bihar Alloys, Kraft Industries, Tamilnadu Telecom, Arihant Cots and Earnest Healthcare. The losers were Deccan Granites, American Dry Fruits, Innovative Marine, BTW Indus and Rinki Petrochemicals.

The Over The Counter Exchange Of India

The Composite Index opened at 88 points and closed at 87.71 points showing a decrease of 0.35 points over the previous close of 88.06 points.

The turnover was Rs 5.73 million, involving 134,000 shares and debentures.

UNI