Oldies Shimmer

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex settled flat for the second day on Wednesday, closing 3.04 points lower at 3,601.39.

Earlier, the Sensex touched an intra-day high of 3,640 points, but slid towards the close of session to end just above the 3600 level.

At the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty index gained 3.10 points to close at 1,133.80.

Gains in pharma, cement and heavyweight stocks could not lift the market, which succumbed to selling pressure in tech stocks, led by Infosys Technologies.

Infosys Technologies ended 4.41 per cent lower at Rs 3,159.10. Over 3.32 lakh Infosys shares were traded on the BSE. HCL Technologies was down 2.06 per cent at Rs 149.40, while Satyam Computer dropped 1.73 per cent to Rs 187.60.

 

Pharma stocks continued their good run on sustained buying support. GlaxoSmithKline Pharma was up 4.47 per cent at Rs 389.35, while Burroughs Wellcome added 15.58 per cent at Rs 448.15 on hopes that the two companies would merge soon.

Cipla was up 4.23 per cent at Rs 779.55 and Ranbaxy was up 0.58 per cent at Rs 803.50.

Elsewhere, State Bank of India rose 1.86 per cent to Rs 389.55, Reliance Industries gained 0.40 per cent to close at Rs 327.15, while ITC was up 0.58 per cent at Rs 758.55. However, Hindustan Lever slipped by 1.04 per cent to Rs 176.85.

Bajaj Auto was down 1.11 per cent at Rs 561.10 despite an announcement by the company that its motorcycle sales in June 2003 had by risen 20.7 per cent to 83,239 units, from 68,965 units in June 2002.

MTNL gained 3.75 per cent to close at Rs 117.50, with 6.13 lakh shares changing hands on the BSE.

Cement pivotals such as L&T was up 2.47 per cent at Rs 249, Grasim added 1.53 per cent to close at Rs 509.10, ACC was up 0.67 per cent at Rs 164.70 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements gained 0.63 per cent to close at Rs 201.25 on renewed buying interest.

Ispat Industries was frozen at the 20 per cent upper limit of the circuit breaker at Rs 12.40 on sustained buying support, after the company reported a net profit of Rs 82.83 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003, as compared to a loss in the previous year.