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FIIs' support eludes market; Sensex down over 16 points, 3206.92

Pivotals suffered a moderate setback at the Bombay Stock Exchange following speculative selling pressure from local operators coupled with lack of buying support from foreign institutional investors on the first day of current settlement today.

Reflecting the market mood, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened higher at 3257.99 points, touched the day's high of 3265.72 points, fell to touch the day's low of 3205.95 points, before closing at 3206.92 points, showing a net loss of 16.65 points to 3206.92 from the previous close of 3223.57 points.

According to market sources, the FIIs preferred to stay away from the market while the domestic institutional investors made purchases in pharma counters. Profit-taking rally led by speculators brought down the benchmark marginally, they said.

A firm trend prevailed in the Asian markets, but it did not have any positive impact on the market today.

According to a report, most Asian stock markets opened sharply higher on growing expectations of a US interest rate cut and hopes that Japan is ready to deal with its massive bad loan problems. In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average of 225 issues closed at 13,909.37 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, up 185.53 points or 1.35 per cent from Friday. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index surged three per cent to close at mid-day at 7,934.16 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index declined by 2.27 points to 1422.45 points against the previous close of 1424.72 points. BSE-200 and Dollex indices also eased slightly to 329.24 and 128.89 points against the Friday's close of 329.28 and 128.96 points respectively.

Among the issues which gained, Bajaj Auto shot up by Rs 14.75 to Rs 675.25, Cadbury Rs 4.25 to Rs 398.75, Castrol Rs 13.50 to Rs 620, Dr Reddy's Rs 7.50 to Rs 508.50, Glaxo earned Rs 15.25 to Rs 488.50, India Hotels Rs 1.75 to Rs 397.00, ITC Rs 11.50 to Rs 710.75, M&M Rs 2.90 to Rs 191.30, Pentafour Software Rs 10.75 to Rs 738, Satyam Computers Rs 20.50 to Rs 571 and Zee Telefilms Rs 53.55 to Rs 723.75.

Among the major losers, BHEL dropped by Re 1 to Rs 297.50, Hero Honda Rs 2.75 to Rs 650, MTNL eased by Rs 5.10 to Rs 210.50, Pond's fell by Rs 14.50 to Rs 1215.00, Procter and Gamble Rs 13.75 to Rs 771, SBI Rs 3.40 to Rs 207.60, Tata Tea Re 1 to Rs 301.

Total turnover on the BOLT network was reported during the day was Rs 14.85 billion.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 2.64 billion, followed by ITC Rs 2.49 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.44 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 1.41 billion and SBI Rs 714.7 million.

Hectic activity was observed at the other counters led by Castrol Rs 552.2 million, Reliance Rs 469.3 million, Tata Tea Rs 350.2 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 343.4 million, NIIT Rs 302.6 million, Digital Equipment Rs 247.8 million, MTNL Rs 237.7 million, L&T Rs 212.7 million, BHEL Rs 212.6 million and Infosys Tech Rs 201.4 million.

UNI