MUMBAI, MARCH 31: Pivotals generally remained steady on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on the last day of financial year 1997-98 due to absence of speculative support. The price movement were narrow and most of the business were of squaring up in nature in view of the last day of weekly settlement on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The closing rates showed small changes.The volume of business continued to be moderate. The BSE sensitive index opened at 3894.53, touched a day's high of 3919.08 fell sharply to touch the day's low of 3875.23 before finishing at 3892.75 with a minor loss of 5.23 points compared to the previous close of 3897.98 points. The BSE-100 index declined by 2.96 points to 1697.14 against the previous close of 1700.10.Brokers said that select pivotals moved in a narrow range on lukewarm activity from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and local operators.
Business was at its low ebb on account of year ending for most corporates.However, there was good demand for the side shareswith software companies such as Infosys Tech, NIIT, Pentafour Software and Satyam Computers showing handsome gains on speculative buying. The total turnover amounted to Rs 1199.05 crore. ITC recorded a turnover of Rs 286.60 crore, Reliance Rs 98.48 crore, Castrol Rs 93.72 crore, Telco Rs 82.24 crore and Tata Tea Rs 75.05 crore. ITC shot up by Rs 13.75 to Rs 714 on brisk support from FIIs. Telco and Tata Tea also remained better. On the NSE, in brisk activity, pivotals fell further on increased selling on the last day of the current settlement. The NSE-50 opened at 1124.75 and closed at 1116.90, showing a moderate loss of 7.95. The Midcap opened at 1349.75 and closed at 1339.40, showing a fall of 9.90 .The volume of business was Rs 1,636.16 crore.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
