Global Turmoil Rattles Bourses

The Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) indices posted modest recovery towards the end of the week, mainly on speculative interest. The international turbulence, especially the Russian currency crisis and the collapse of the far-eastern bourses along with the slump in Dow Jones Industrials hit sentiment on the first three days of the week.

The BSE Sensex closed at 2,975.10, a gain of 67 points over the previous week's close of 2908.10.

The S&P CNX Nifty closed at 866.50, up 16.70 points over the previous week.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to be net sellers -- but with reduced intensity -- even as domestic institutions turned aggressive buyers.

After a prolonged bull run, heavyweight software stocks came under severe selling pressure following a slide on Nasdaq, the US exchange that is the benchmark for fund managers tracking software stocks. Satyam Computer, Infosys Technologies, NIIT and Pentafour Software took a beating early in the week, but stabilised towards the end. However, side-counters such as HCL Infosystems, Software Solutions and Fujitsu ICIM remained firm on sustained buying interest.

"The selling pressure was largely triggered off by the slide on Nasdaq and funds are now partially booking profits at these counters. But this need not be interpreted as a re-rating of the sector," said a fund manager.

The highlight of the week was the ITC scrip which rallied handsomely following the Central Excise & Gold Appellate Tribunal's decision to waive the penalty imposed on the company and its directors in the excise evasion case. The scrip flared up on the last trading day of the week, as players expected the recalculation of excise liability to be lower than Rs 350 crore -- an amount that the company has already paid. On the last two trading sessions, the bourses recovered some of the lost ground.

New Delhi: Pivotals led by heavy weighted counters such as ITC Ltd, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Reliance Industries and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) rallied last week on hectic buying support by local institutions. Marketmen said the sentiment was affected by global developments.

The finance minister's remark that the impact of US sanctions would fade away influenced trend early on and the week commenced on a healthy note.

But the Russian currency crisis and the historic fall in New York's Dow Jones Industrials pulled down stocks. Calcutta: The Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) registered a strong recovery in prices during the week ended September 4 due to sustained buying support from speculators as well as domestic institutions.

Although in the early part of the week there was a downslide in major counters affected by the turmoil in the global market, most counters recovered their positions later and finally closed higher on fresh support. Chennai: A mixed trend was noticed on the Madras Stock Exchange during the week. ITC and Reliance finished better on good buying support at the fag-end of the current session.

The MSE-index which closed lower on Monday at 3342.22 further moved down to 3303.30 and then recovered to settle at 3365.01 points from the previous week's close of 3355.05 points,posting a net gain of 9.96 points.