Equities Trim Gains On Late Selling By Speculators

Equities lost early initiative and closed with trimmed gains at the Mumbai stock market yesterday on late bouts of selling by speculators and operators.

Initially, share prices rose sharply on speculative buying and the Sensex crossed 3750-resistance level with players expecting the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to enter the market in a big way. However, FII activity remained at a low ebb.

Brokers said the market could not sustain at higher levels and prices gradually declined on profit-taking by players at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for squaring up positions ahead of the current settlement. Shares of SBI, ITC, Reliance and Tata Tea came down sharply from the highs on profit-taking at higher levels.

 

Reflecting the trend, the BSE Sensitive index opened at 3745.19, touched a high of 3792.86 and closed at 3739.21, with a gain of 19.36 points from the previous close of 3719.85. The BSE-100 ended at 1627.39, showing a rise of 13.11 points from the last close of 1614.28. The BSE-200 closed higher at 364.94 and the dollex at 154.29 from the previous close of 361.58 and 153.34 respectively.

Hind Lever was in the limelight on speculative buying but came under selling pressure at the Rs 1440 level to end with moderate advance. Hindalco, IPCL, L&T, Nestle, Ranbaxy, Tata Power, Cadbury and Britannia also ended with substantial gains on speculative buying. Elsewhere, shares ended with small gains and losses spread over a wide front.

Three scrips attracted ulta badla between 10 paise to 50 paise. Total turnover at the bolt system was Rs 824.40 crore.

ITC was the leader with a volume of Rs 180.50 crore. Turnover from Tata Tea amounted to Rs 113.09 crore, SBI Rs 100.99 crore, Reliance Rs 69.74 crore and Castrol Rs 44.28 crore. PTI