Sluggish Trade Keeps Nifty In Narrow Groove

The trading at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) remained sluggish yesterday with the NSE-50 index moving in a narrow range to close at 1105.80, a gain of 2.45 points. The exchange clocked a turnover of Rs 1,415.10 crore with over 5.58 crore shares changing hands. The Nifty opened firm at 1103.80, dipped to a low of 1099.80, touched a high of 1113.45 before closing at 1105.80 points.

The midcap index gained 8.55 points to close at 1284.90 points. According to sources, there was some amount of FII buying in counters such as Telco, Infosys Technologies and Nestle.

On the other hand, the foreign funds are believed to have sold heavily at BSES and Bajaj Auto counters. Market sources informed that there was good amount of buying at some of the pharma counters. It is likely that some foreign funds, which have sectoral funds, might have made huge purchases at these counters. While many of the pharma scrips firmed up, some, including German Remedies, hit the upper end of the price band during yesterdays trading, said a NSE dealer. Many MNC scrips also firmed up yesterday. Among the major gainers were Nestle India, which, for the second day in running, touched the upper end of the band. Nestle closed at Rs 422.25 from its previous close of Rs 383.85. The scrip clocked a turnover of Rs 8.09 crore.

The other pharma scrips that flared up include German Remedies which closed at Rs 331.75 over its previous close of Rs 303. It touched its 52-week high of Rs 333.30 during intra-day trading. Dr. Reddys Labs also flared up and closed at Rs 392.15 after hitting its 52-week high of Rs 400.90 during intra-day trading.

Among the swadeshi scrips that flared up were TVS Suzuki, Dabur India and Infosys Technologies.