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Bulls, FIs offload; Sensex down 53 points to 3686.29

Pivotals suffered a moderate setback on heavy off-loading by bull operators and domestic institutions on the last day of the current settlement, pushing down the Sensex by about 53 points at the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

The BSE-30 Sensitive Index opened higher at 3750.22 from its previous close of 3739.96, further rose to the high of 3754.73, later touched the low of 3684.18 before closing at 3686.29 points, losing 53.67 points today.

The BSE-100 ended 17.50 points lower at 1633.87 points from 1651.37. The BSE-200 drifted lower by 3.87 points at 376.14 points while the Dollex index eased by 1.52 points at 147.59 points.

According to brokers, shares like ITC, MTNL, Tata Tea and banks declined moderately on heavy selling by domestic institutions and bull operators. However ACC, Digital Equipment, Bajaj Auto and Reliance flared up marginally on buying interest.

Foreign institutional investors have not actively participated in the market, they added.

Dealers said that operators squared up their long positions built earlier, booked profit by selling select scrips on the last day of the settlement.

Another dealer attributed the fall in share prices today as a technical correction, after two straight days of upswing in the market where the Sensex shot up by about 142 points on Tuesday and Thursday. Today is the last day for the current settlement as Friday is a holiday.

Total turnover, involving 55 million shares of 1,963 companies in 182,281 trades, stood at Rs 17.30 billion today.

Pentafour registered the highest turnover of Rs 4.47 billion, followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.61 billion, ITC Rs 718.4 million, Digital Equipment Rs 655 million, ACC Rs 627.1 million, Reliance Rs 580.5 million, SBI Rs 537 million, L&T Rs 511.6 million, Tata Tea Rs 415.6 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 386.3 million, Ranbaxy Rs 376.5 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 326.1 million, Infosys Technology Rs 316.2 million, BPL Rs 292.8 million and NIIT Rs 238.2 million.

Among the losers, Dr Reddy's lost Rs 12 to close at Rs 850, Hindustan Lever Rs 44 to Rs 2220, ITC Limited Rs 18.25 to 944.75, NIIT Rs 25 to Rs 1850, Ranbaxy Rs 28 to Rs 637 and Tata Rs 14 to Rs 470.

However, ACC gained Rs 47 to Rs 1484, Bajaj Auto Rs 14 to Rs 630, BPL Limited Rs 15 to Rs 409.50, and Digital Equipment Rs 30.75 to Rs 419.75.

UNI

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