Central Bank Board, Brass At Loggerheads

Pharmaceutical stocks rose sharply on the first day of trading settlement at the Bombay stock Exchange (BSE) on consideration of price decontrol by the government. Higher badla rates of 32-33.50 per cent per annum compelled the markets to open on a strong note, however, the indices are unlikely to sustain at higher levels. The BSE-30 Sensex ended the day with a gain of 70.69 points at 4,746.54, while the S&P CNX Nifty closed at 1,422.45, a marginal rise of 3.15 points. Foreign financial institutions (FIIs) were once again net buyers of Rs 67.80 crore on Friday. More than 490 stocks at the BSE recorded a new high.

Intra-day movements

The BSE-30 Sensex opened on an extremely strong note at 4,793.72 points against its previous close of 4,675.85 points. On active buying in heavy weights counters in infotech, pharmaceuticals and banking stocks, the benchmark index touched a high of 4,846.15, thus registering a gain of 170.30 points. However, selling pressure in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and lacklustre movement in index heavy weights such as MTNL, Reliance and SBI retraced the index to a low of 4,734.61 points gradually, over the course of the day. The Sensex thereafter ended at 4,746.54 points, thus showing a gain of 70.69 points.

Broader picture

The other broad indices at the BSE also showed substantial gains. The BSE-100 ended with gain of 46.70 points at 2,448.89 points against its previous close of 2,402.19. Similarly, the BSE-200 and the BSE-500 showed gains of 10.56 and 37.18 points to end the day at 565.44 and 1,711.27 points. Even the BSE-Dollex gained 4.14 points to end the day at 216.46 points.

At the National stock exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty ended the day with a gain of 3.15 points to close at 1,422.45. The Index touched an intra-day high of 1,435.55 points and later, on selling pressure, slipped to a low of 1,418.75 points.

Similarly, the S&P CNX 500 showed a modest gain of 1.10 points at 1,144.53 against its previous close of 1,132.04, while the S&P CNX Defty closed at 1,133.15, a marginal gain of 2.50 points. While the CNX Midcap 200 also showed a gain of 2.75 per cent or 31.18 points to close at 1,135.75 points. However, the CNX Nifty junior ended the day with a loss of 12.95 points to close at 3,790.45 against its previous close of 3,803.40 points.