Sensex gains 16.68 points after early slide

Select equity prices went up further on improved buying support from foreign institutional investors and bull operators on the last day of the current settlement cycle in the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday.

The market opened slightly lower after bull operators unloaded shares and most brokers tried to square their positions. Later, market players entered and bought a considerable number of shares and arrested a further downfall, leading brokers said.

Resuming the upward trend, the BSE Sensitive Index opened at 4114.20 points, touched the day's high of 4153.80 points and a low of 4104.85 points before closing at 4133.24 points as against the previous day's close of 4116.56 points, a net gain of 16.68 points.

The BSE-100 index closed at 1770.33 points against last trading day's close of 1768.03 points, gaining 2.30 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices finished at 391.78 points and 180.00 points as compared to Thursday's close of 391.86 and 182.08 points respectively.

The total turnover on screen-based trading system was Rs 8.69 billion, involving 37 million shares. Out of 6699 scrips, 2115 scrips were traded on the BOLT system.

Hectic trading was observed at RIL (Rs 2.78 billion), ITC (Rs 1.54 billion), SBI (Rs 769 million), Telco (Rs 668.3 million), Tisco (Rs 448.2 million), ACC (Rs 315.8 million), BHEL (Rs 169.2 million), MTNL (Rs 162.3 million), Gujarat Ambuja Cement (Rs 149.5 million), L and T (Rs 135.8 million), HDFC (Rs 118.8 million), IPCL (Rs 80.7 million) and Tata Tea (Rs 74.9 million) in specified counters.

A good transaction was witnessed at Bank of India, Him Fut Comm, Nicholas Piramal, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Reliance Petroleum, Krebs Biochem, Chemplas San, Infosys Tech, UTI M Growth and Tata Vashist in 'B1' counters.

National Stock Exchange

Pivotal prices recovered smartly on good buying support from bull operators coupled with foreign institutional investors on the last day of current settlement cycles in the National Stock Exchange in Bombay on Friday.

NSE-50 Index closed at 1138.80 points as compared to previous close of 1129.70 points, showing a gain of 9.1 points. The Midcap Index also closed at 1168.90 points over the last trading day's close of 1166.05 points, gaining 2.85 points. The total turnover on NSE was Rs 20.18 billion, involving 70.79 million shares.

Hectic trading was observed at the following counters: ITC (Rs 6.05 billion), SBI (Rs 3.61 billion), RIL (Rs 3.11 billion), Telco (Rs 2.15 billion), Tisco (Rs 742.4 million), ACC (Rs 706.6 million), Tata Tea (Rs 522.1 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 361 million), MTNL (Rs 282.7 million), L and T (Rs 251.6 million), OBC (Rs 243.9 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 200.7 million), Bank of India (Rs 120 million), BPCL (Rs 112.3 million), BHEL (Rs 103.9 million), Castrol (Rs 85.9 million), Tata Power (Rs 82.1 million), BSES (Rs 80.8 million), M and M (Rs 65.1 million), ICICI (Rs 64.9 million), Colgate (Rs 53.4 million), Orchid Chem (Rs 45.8 million), Crisil (Rs 39.5 million), Lakme (Rs 39.1 million) and ONGC (Rs 36.2 million).

Top five gainers were Great Eastern Shipping, OBC, M and M, Reliance Capital and ACC.

The losers were Cochin Refineries, HPCL, IPCL, Indian Hotels and Essar Steel. Share prices reacted marginally on lack of buying support from financial institutions and common investors on Over-The-Counter Exchange of India.

The OTC Composite Index opened at 78.23 points, registered the day's high of 78.23 points, a low of 76.85 points and closed at 78.05 points as against the previous close of 78.86 points, a loss of 0.81 points.

UNI