Share prices stay subdued

MUMBAI, May 26: Share prices general remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on lack of follow up support. A few select p...

MUMBAI, May 26: Share prices general remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on lack of follow up support. A few select pivotals, however staged a minor recovery on limited speculative support mainly due to start of the new account and buying by the local operators. Institutional buying was absent. The closing rates showed small changes. The volume of business remained thin.

The BSE sensitive index moved between 3726.17 and 3693.45, before closing at 3701.65 with a minor loss of 4.72 points compared to the previous level of 3706.37. The BSE-100 index was down by 2.81 points at 1594.92 from previous level of 1597.73.

Brokers said that the forecast of a normal monsoon for the tenth successive year did not have much impact on operators, who were not willing to enter into fresh commitments until the government took a decision on the impending petro-price hike. The continued discouraging corporate reports also prompted operators to keep away from the market.

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Heavy weight scrips like Reliance Industries, SBI, Telco and MTNL showed moderate gains on speculative buying. ACC was the day’s weak spot having recorded a sharp fall on the reckoning that the company had a disapointing performance during the 1996-97.

SBI was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 96.95 crore in the total volume of business of Rs 410.65 crore followed by Reliance of Rs 70.02 crore, ITC of Rs 68.33 crore, Tata Steel of 36.36 crore and Telco of Rs 34.09 crore.

SBI recovered by Rs 2.75 to Rs 303 and Reliance Rs 1.25 to Rs 288.50 on speculative support while Tata Steel dipped by Rs 4.75 to 168.75 on profit taking. ACC slumped by Rs 73.75 to Rs 1037 on bull unloading. However, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, IDBI, Indian Hotels, MTNL, Century, Indian Rayon and HPCL remained better.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE) share prices continued low today on lack of buying interest and closed with increased losses. The market sentiment could be seen in the NSE-50 index which opened weak at 1032.15 and dropped further to 1025.50, before closing at 1026.90, revealing a fall of 6.80. Meanwhile, the midcap started better at 1112.95 and rose to touch 1113.15. Thereafter, it dropped to 1100.15 and finally settled at 1104.65, showing a loss of 7.05. The market displayed a low turnover of Rs 865.43 crore.