Share Prices Retreat Further On Squaring Up Operations
Equities retreated further on the last day of the current settlement on squaring up positions and lack of speculative support from investors on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday.
Speculative activity was at a low ebb on account of the absence of major players and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) while the selling pressure from domestic institutions continued unabated which pushed down the BSE sensitive index by 54.91 points to close at 3439.49. The BSE-100 index dropped by 22.25 points to 1498.09. The BSE-200 declined by 4.87 to 332.49 and the Dollex by 2.26 to 154.24.Brokers are now keenly awaiting the announcement of the Union Budget proposals for some sops to the ailing industry which would help to steer prices upwards. Till then the bear phase would continue on cautious attitude, dealers felt.
Among the weak spots, Hindustan Lever and Indian Hotels featured with a sharp fall on heavy bear pressure. Apollo Tyres, Bajaj Auto, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Bom Dyeing, Century, Hindalco, IPCL, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Housing Development Finance, India Rayon, Ranbaxy, Tata Power, Tata Iron & Steel Corporation, Thermax and United Phos ended subdued on selling pressure.
Reliance Industries and State Bank of India recovered part of their early losses on support from domestic institutions, while Bombay Suburban Electric Supply suffered a sharp fall on bear hammering from FIIs.
The total turnover on the screen-based BOLT system increased to Rs 572.56 crore, involving 2.84 crore shares. Out of 6667 scrips, a total numbers 2,735 scrips were traded.Hectic trading was witnessed in SBI (Rs 174.5 crore), RIL (Rs 113.93 crore), ITC (Rs 81.59 crore), Tisco (Rs 45.04 crore) and BSES (Rs 17.72 crore) followed by Telco, Associated Cement Companies, MTNL, HPCL and L&T.