Itc Raids Take Their Toll As Downtrend Prevails

A two-way movement was witnessed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) yesterday as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold considerable numbers of heavy weighted shares, while company circles bought blue chips to arrest the heavy downfall of shares prices.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raids at the residence of top officials of the ITC following the violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera) to the tune of $100 million had an adverse effect on the capital market. The FIIs sold 1.5 crore shares of ITC, leading brokers said. They said despite good half-yearly result announced by the Bajaj Auto and Reliance Industries the sentiment failed to improve.

 

Reflecting the downward trend, the BSE Sensitive Index (60 scrips) fluctuated between 3171.45 and 3122.76 points before closing at 3163.78 as against its previous close of 3172.98 points, suffering a loss of

9.20 points.

The broadbased BSE National Index (100 scrips) slid to 1409.10 points over the previous close of 1414.02 points, losing 04.92 points. The BSE -200 and Dollex indices settled down at 311.43 and 145.36 points compared to the previous close of 312.90 and 146.04 points respectively.

A leading broker said the Bajaj Auto scrip declined to Rs 48 crore during the first sixth months. The formal announcement made by the governing board of the BSE for the expansion of BOLT system in the other cities of the country from November 18, also failed to improve the sentiment.

The total turnover on screen-based trading was Rs 407.68 crore, involving 2.33 shares. Out of 6,859 scrips, a total of 2,430 scrips were traded on BOLT.

Hectic trading was witnessed in ITC (Rs 99.69 cr), SBI (Rs 87.46 cr), Tisco (Rs 85.81), Reliance Industries (Rs 50.54 cr), followed by Larsen and Toubro, ACC, BSES, HDFC, Telco, MTNL, Bajaj Auto, IPCL, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Tata Power and Hind Lever in specified counters.

While, in `B1 group, was Madras Cement, Sol Pharma, TVS Suzuki, Bata India, Boots, Mardia Chem, Tata Hydro, Flat Product, HIM Fut Comm and DIG Equipment.