Select Blue-Chips Firm Up On Fresh Fii Purchases

After an initial sharp setback, a select few blue chip scrips recovered smartly and even posted handsome gains on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday following fresh purchases from foreign institutional investors (FIIS) and buying support by local operators.

Reflecting the initial reaction, the BSE sensitive index dropped to the intra-day low of 4252.49, before settling down at 4,306.39 as against yesterdays close of 4,291.45, netting a gain of 14.94 points. The BSE-100 index edged up by 9.63 points to 1860.49 points from 1850.86 previously. The BSE-200 and the Dollex stood at 410.74 and 191.07 points gaining 1.99 and 0.87 points respectively over the previous close of 408.75 and 190.20 points respectively.

Foreign institutions were reported to have continued their buying in companies like Colgate, Cadbury, Nestle, Castrol, Hindalco, Proctor & Gamble and Pfizer.

The early setback was attributed to selling pressure in the form of squaring off in view of the last day of the current settlement on the NSE. However, sustained support by foreign funds prompted short covering at the fag end. Nalco firmed up further on reports that the company has decided to raise foreign equity to 24 per cent. Other firm spots were Sail, ITC Mahindra & Mahindra, Bses, Arvind Mills, Hero Honda Motors, ITC Bhadra, Parke Davis and Reliance Capital. Total turnover on the BSE reported during the day was at Rs 947.60 crore comprising Rs 892.05 crore.

RIL topped the turnover list registering the highest of Rs 193.79 crore, State Bank Rs 124.28 crore, Tisco Rs 93.88 crore, ITC Rs 83.74 crore, MTNL Rs 63.49 crore. Castrol was at Rs 55.63 crore, Telco Rs 43.97 crore, ACC Rs 33.37 crore, Colgate Rs 31.28 crore, BSES Rs 13.43 crore, Nestle Rs 11.70 crore, HDFC Rs 11.04 crore, L&T Rs 9.45 crore, Glaxo India Rs 9.45 crore and Reliance Capital Rs 9.30 crore.