Pivotals In Free Fall On Heavy Offloading By Fiis

Heavy selling pressure in pivotals and a generally weak market resulted in a 20.8 point fall in the National Stock Exchange -50 (NSE-50) Index yesterday.

There was a general panic in the market following the decision by the chief metropolitan magistrate to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant to former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao. Considerable selling pressure was witnessed in Tisco, SBI and L&T scrips.

Among the prominent stocks, Bombay Dyeing, L&T and Tata Tea touched their 52-week lows. Most dealers attributed the prevailing conditions to a `confidence crisis, especially among the foreign investors who have been off-loading the pivotals.

 

The Index opened at 924.93 points, touched a high of 925.93 and closed at 904.12, after touching a low of 898.47 points.

The net traded value was Rs 1276.20, of which more than 80 per cent was accounted for by SBI, ITC and Reliance in that order.

The SBI scrip opened at Rs 240.25, and touched a high at Rs 251. Later It plunged to a low of Rs 227, before closing at Rs 230.35, Rs 9.30 lower than the last close of Rs 239.65. Having reached the ceiling of 20 per cent, the FII activity in SBI is expected to dip marginally.

The volumes in the SBI scrip, the highest on NSE, was at Rs 677.60 crore, followed by ITC wherin Rs 229.81 crore worth of volumes were traded. The ITC stock opened at Rs 313 over the last close of Rs 312.20. It finally lost Rs 3.70, closing at Rs 308.50.

Reliance, meanwhile, saw trading of Rs 121.41 crore. The scrip opened at Rs 190.75, above the previous close of Rs 189.70, touched the days high at Rs 192.25 and closed at Rs 190.70 after having touched the days high at Rs 192.25. The stock gained Re 1 over the previous closing.