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Prices fall on sustained FII selling; Nifty 860.10

Share prices continued to decline on speculative selling pressure by foreign institutional investors and bull operators on the opening day of the current settlement on the National Stock Exchange.

Mirroring the subdued trend, the S&P CNX Nifty Index fell by 6.40 points to 860.10 points from 866.50 points of the previous day. The CNX Nifty Junior Index slide by 14.25 points to 1453.50 points from 1467.55 points while the S&P CNX Defty Index dropped by 7.15 points to 693.20 points from 700.35 points. The S&P CNX 500 index moved down by 5.37 points to 587.35 points from 592.72 points. The CNX Midcap 200 index dipped by 7.26 points to 510.88 points from 518.14 points of the previous day.

The total turnover, involving 41.40 million shares in 158,893 trades was Rs 10.45 billion and the debentures traded value was Rs 8.71 lakh.

About 390 scrips advanced, 490 declined and 106 remained unchanged today. More than 35 securities hit their price bands today.

FIIs today purchased shares for Rs 110.25 million against their higher sales of Rs 535.57 million, which indicated an outflow of foreign funds to the tune of Rs 425.32 million from the market.

ITC recorded the highest turnover of Rs 2.46 billion, followed by Satyam Computers (Rs 1.32 billion), SBI (Rs 729.5 million), Reliance (Rs 611.1 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 533..3 million), Pentafour Software (Rs 505.5 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 455.1 million), Castrol India (Rs 386.2 million), ACC (Rs 293.7 million), Tata Tea (Rs 277.3 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 187.9 million), MTNL (Rs 181.2 million) and Tisco (Rs 160.6 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic activity were: Colgate (Rs 146.8 million), Telco (Rs 135.5 million), L&T (Rs 117.9 million), BFL Software (Rs 112.8 million), Rolta (Rs 79..8 million), Dabur (Rs 78.4 million), BHEL (Rs 74.4 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 70.7 million), Brittania (Rs 68.7 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 64 million), Silverline (Rs 58.9 million) and Software Solution (Rs 58.6 million).

IPCL registered the highest gain of 3.54 per cent to Rs 49.70, followed by Asian Paints (3.42 per cent to Rs 293.50), Hindustan Petroleum 2.44 per cent to Rs 273.35, BSES 2.34 per cent to Rs 144.20 and Arvind Mill 2.30 per cent to Rs 33.40.

ACC topped the losers list with 5.88 per cent loss to Rs 1099.95, followed by Indian Rayon 3.65 per cent to Rs 127.85, Hindalco 3.56 per cent to Rs 528.40, Tisco 3.01 per cent to Rs 93.40 and Reliance Capital 2.96 per cent to Rs 45.95.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 5.48 billion. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded actively for Rs 1.7 billion at a weighted yield of 11.42 per cent.

The 11.68 per cent government loan maturing in 2002 was traded for Rs 350 million at a weighted yield of 11.60 per cent and the six per cent government of India capital indexed bond was traded for Rs 280 million at a weighted yield of 14.23 per cent.

The zero per cent debenture issued by Reliance Capital maturing in 2002 was traded for Rs 600 million at a yield of a 15.89 per cent. The turnover in debentures was Rs 660.69 million.

UNI