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Nifty moves up slightly

Pivotals recovered the loss suffered in the morning session and edged up marginally at the fag end on the opening day of the current settlement at the National Stock Exchange.

Reflecting the trend, the NSE-50 index, after touching the day's low of 916.50 in the morning session, moved up to 942.25 points at close, gaining 0.60 points against the previous day's 941.65 points.

The dollar NSE-50 index also improved by 4.20 points to 773.80 from 769.60 points of the previous day.

However, the midcap index dipped by 6.60 points to 1,335.60 points from 1,342.20 points of the last working day.

The total turnover, involving 3.7 million shares in 142,426 trades was Rs 10.32 billion. The debenture turnover was Rs 95.2 million.

Four hundred and four scrips advanced, 455 declined and 78 remained unchanged. About 37 securities hit their price bands.

Satyam computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.39 billion, followed by ITC (2.17 billion), SBIN (861.7 million), Hind Lever (726.1 million), Reliance (568.2 million), Pentsfware (407.1 million), Tata Tea (385.5 million), Castrol (331.9 million), ACC (274.7 million), Wipro (195 million), BFL software (171.7 million), Telco (164 million) and Infosystech (145.6 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic activity were L and T (124 million), Aptech (95.1 million), Bajaj Auto (74.2 million), MTNL (73.3 million), Digital Eqp and Tisco (60.7 million each), BSES (52.5 million), BHEL (50.5 million), Infosystech (45.1 million), Softsolint (42.5 million) and HCL-HP (38.4 million).

Hind Lever recorded the highest gain of 7.60 per cent to Rs 1,613.55 (1,499.65), followed by Ponds Rs 1,109.95 (1058.20), ACC Rs 1,254.10 (1,219.15), Ind Rayon Rs 191.95 (187.80) and Grasim Rs 334.50 (327.35).

Ashok Leyl, suffering a major loss, closed lower by 9.91 per cent to Rs 39.55 from Rs 43.90 followed by HDFC Bank Rs 61.55 (65.25), Rel Petro Rs 18.95 (19.80), BPCL Rs 335 (349.70) and Ind Hotele Rs 419.50 (433.55).

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 190.8 million against their selling of Rs 276 million indicating the net outflow of Rs 85.1 million from the market.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trading worth Rs 1.23 billion.

The 13.70 per cent government loan maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 250 million at a weighted yield of 10.10 per cent.

The 11.75 per cent government stock maturing in 2001 was traded for 200 million at a weighted yield of 11.42 per cent.

The 16.25 per cent non-SLR bond of IFCI Ltd maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 12.59 per cent.

The total turnover of debentures was Rs 513,000.

UNI