Sensex loses 22 points

February 15: After a better spell, pivotals led by Hindustan Lever reacted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on emergence of profi...

February 15: After a better spell, pivotals led by Hindustan Lever reacted on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on emergence of profit-taking coupled with lack of institutional support. The Sensex lost 22 points. The closing rates showed widespread small losses. The volume of business remained moderate.

The BSE sensitive index started better at 3378.57 and touched the inter-day high at 3394.01 but dropped after the mid-session to finish at 3315.08 with a net loss of 22.41 points compared to the previous level of 3337.94. The BSE-100 index lost 6.04 points to 1462.08 from the previous level of 1468.12.

Brokers said that the sentiment was affected in the absence of speculative support in view of end account considerations on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The announcement of excellent working results by consumer goods giant, Hindustan Lever showing rise in its net profits for 1998 failed to buoy the sentiments. HLL counter crashed from Rs 2055 to close at Rs 1984 on profit-taking after theannouncement of working results.

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On the NSE, pivotals turned easy on heavy profit-selling by domestic funds as well as operators. The market opened on a positive note but prices could not maintain the initial firmness and turned weak towards the fag-end.

The S&P CNX Nifty reacted by 15.70 points to close at 954.55 from the last close of 970.25. The volume of business was at Rs 2,395.97 crore. The exchange witnessed 429 scrips advance, 632 scrips fall and 88 scrips rule steady while 84 securities had hit the price bands.