COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES
SEARCH REDIFF

The S&P CNX Nifty Index at the National Stock Exchange also moved down by 55.45 points following huge drops in pivotal prices.

There was across-the-board decline on the bourses and over 90 per cent of pivotals were limit down, said a leading BSE broker.

Reflecting the bearish trend, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 4490.06 points, and surpassed the 4,500 mark to touch the day's high of 4500.36 points. But the Sensex could not hold the higher level for long and fell sharply below the 4,300 mark by touching a day's low of 4267.74 points, before closing at 4270.74 points, showing a net loss of 173.82 points from Friday's close of 4444.56 points.

The Sensex has lost nearly 535 points in last five trading sessions in a row.

The broad-based BSE National (100-scrip) Index declined sharply by 96.39 points to 1975.11 points as against the previous close of 2071.50 points.

Satyam, Ranbaxy, Global Telesystems, MTNL, State Bank of India, Reliance, Infosys Technologies, Zee Telefilms and almost all the shares moved down on heavy selling pressure, dealers said.

None of the scrips was seen gaining on the screen in the total downtrend, said Nikhil Vakharia, analyst at Kanchanlal and Sons, a Bombay-based broking firm.

Sensex crashed by 800 points in 20 days

The BSE Sensex had touched an all-time high of 5075.39 points on October 11, 1999. On October 14, it closed at an all-time closing high of 5073. and recorded a whopping loss of 805 points during last 20 days.

Dealers said that there was panic selling in the market in view of continuous selling spree by FIIs. There was no follow up buying by domestic institutional investors or mutual funds and the brokers who were in overbought positions have preferred to sell off their positions.

BSE president denies payment crisis

There was also rumour in the market about a reported payment crisis. However, the exchange authorities categorically denied such reports.

"If we had a comfortable 35 per cent margins at the BSE, how will the exchange face payment crisis when there was a five per cent loss?" BSE president Anand Rathi questioned.

Mirorring the weak trend, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 21.72 and 8.16 points to 461.48 and 177.12 points as against the previous close of 483.20 and 185.28 points respectively.

The BSE-500 index also moved down by 65.72 points to 1380.80 point as against the previous close of 1446.52 points.

FIIs turned net sellers from August, sell stocks worth Rs 15.52 bn

According to marketmen, the FIIs who were net buyers from January onwards till July turned out net sellers from August onwards and reported net sales worth Rs 15.52 billion. Their net selling caused severe damages to the market sentiment as people who had invested thinking a firm trend was ahead, and preferred to hold on to their positions, lost heavily due to this massive decline in the share prices.

The business volume was thin as the total turnover on the BOLT system at the BSE came down by Rs 11.44 billion to Rs 18.56 billion as against Rs 30 billion recorded on Friday.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 2.30 billion, followed by Zee Telefilms Rs 1.45 billion, Reliance Rs 1.42 billion, Ranbaxy Rs 1.34 billion and SBI Rs 1.04 billion.

Other actively traded counters were Infosys Technologies rs 919.6 million, NIIT Rs 635.3 million, Pentafour Software Rs 609.1 million, Global Telesystems Rs 555.7 million, Himachal Futuristic Rs 428.4 million, L&T Rs 423.6 million, ITC Rs 391.5 million, Silverline Rs 352.9 million, Digital Equipment Rs 346 million and Tisco Rs 323 million.

NSE keeps pace with BSE in downtrend, Nifty 1270

At the National Stock Exchange, pivotals crashed further on heavy bull hammering and sustained selling pressure from FIIs and local operators.

Reflecting the downtrend, the S&P CNX Nifty opened at 1325.90 points, moved up to 1332.70 points, touched the day's low of 1260.80 points, before closing at 1270 points, showing a net loss of 55.45 points over 1325.45 points of the previous day.

The S&P CNX 500 index shed 52.97 points to 919.65 points from 972.62 while the CNX Nifty Junior crashed by 154.60 points to 2433.95 points from 2588.55 points of the previous day.

The S&P CNX Nifty declined by 44.45 points to 1014.15 points from 1058.60 points and CNX Midcap 200 fell by 54.10 points to 840.60 points from 894.70 points of the previous day.

The NSE witnessed total turnover of Rs 24.33 billion, involving 98.07 million shares in 354,321 trades. Debentures were traded for Rs 600,000. Total market capitalisation stood at Rs 6.36 trillion.

Among the top S&P CNX Nifty losers, Dr Reddy's fell by 8 per cent to Rs 974.05 from Rs 1058.70, Ranbaxy 8 per cent to Rs 07.05 (877.20), Telco 8 per cent to Rs 222.05 (241.35), L&T 7.99 per cent to Rs 363.30 (394.85) and Tisco 7.85 per cent to Rs 136.80 (148.45).

The top gainers were: M&M which moved up by 4.54 per cent to Rs 377.50 from Rs 361.10, Reckit Colman 3.98 per cent to Rs 374.75 (360.40), Smithkline 2.21 per cent to Rs 648.85 (634.85), Gujarat Ambuja 1.89 per cent to Rs 552.10 (541.85) and Hero Honda 0.66 per cent to Rs 1176.95 (1169.20).

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 3.74 billion, followed by Reliance Rs 1.84 billion, Ranbaxy Rs 1.57 billion, SBI Rs 1.53 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.50 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 998.8 million and Square D Software Rs 995.3 million.

The other actively traded counters were: Infosys Technologies Rs 945.1 million, Global Telesystems Rs 808.9 million, Silverline Rs 683.9 million, ITC Rs 650 million, Himachal Futuristic Rs 628.1 million, NIIT Rs 584.1 million and L&T Rs 532.2 million.

Rupee weakens to 43.40 to US $

The Indian rupee weakened marginally against the greenback and ended two paise lower at 43.3950/40 on good dollar demand from nationalised banks at the interbank foreign exchange market.

The rupee opened steady at 43.37/38, came under pressure on US dollar demand and gradually moved downwards as State Bank of India and other nationalised banks were purchasing dollar.

The Indian unit ended at 43.3950/40, two paise lower from the previous day's closing level of 43.37/38. Dealers said though the supply was good, heavy dollar buying by banks pushed down the rupee. Heavy off-loading by foreign institutional investors in the capital market is also a negative factor on the rupee, they said.

However, forward premia continued its downtrend and ended further lower as the call rates ruled easy around 8 per cent level.

Near forwards moved down by 2-3 paise while far forwards finished 3-4 paise lower from the previous day's closing level. The sixth month and yearly annualised premia ended lower at 5.10 per cent and 5.25 per cent respectively as compared to 5.19 per cent and 5.31 per cent of the previous day.

Cash/spot and cash/tomorrow premia ended at 0.50-0.75 paise and 0.25-0.50 paise respectively. The month-wise premia in paise were: November 13-14, December 28-29, January 48-50, February 66-68, March 86-88, April 106-107, May 126-127, June 146-148, July 166-168, August 185-187, September 205-207 and October 222-227.

The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate for US $ at Rs 43.38 as against Rs 43.42 of the previous day.

In the cross currency, the rupee depreciated against pound sterling, euro and Japanese yen. Sterling finished at Rs 71.50 (70.91), euro at Rs 45.83 (45.36) and yen at Rs 41.69 (41.35).

At the domestic market, the call rates opened steady at 8.00-8.20 per cent, hovered in a tight range between 8.00-8.25 per cent level before closing at 8.00-8.10 per cent on comfortable liquidity condition.

UNI

Business