Ril Dips, Other Pivotals Surge On Fii Buying

In a mixed pattern of trading, the market leader, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) fell back sharply yesterday on heavy selling pressure even as other index-based heavyweights like ITC, GA Cement, Hind Lever, MTNL and SAIL scored sharp gains on the stock market on fresh buying from foreign institutional investors (FII's) and local operators.

RIL, which had gone up on the bonus news, encountered profittaking and lost its overnight gains. While brokers attributed the fall to squaring off at the end of the current settlement, analysts opined that the Indian market was not prepared for the large capital base, which RIL would have due to the proposed bonus. They said any adverse news would definitely bring more selling pressure in the scrip due to heavy floating stocks resulting from the bonus issue.

 

The BSE Sensitive Index had risen to the intra-day high of 4153.80 during the session. Later, it dipped partly at the fag end to close at 4133.74 as against the previous day's close of 4116.56, netting a gain of 17.18 points. The BSE-100 index also looked up by 2.30 points to 1770.33 from the previous close of 1768.03.

Telco, Tata Steel, Tata Chem, Ind Hotels, Bhel, Glaxo and M&M also dropped moderately on selling pressure. MRF fell by Rs 241.25 to close at Rs 2808.75 while Tata Power lost Rs 4.50 to end the day at Rs 133.50.

However, GA Cement rallied smartly on expectation of a liberal bonus issue by the company. The other significant gainer in the specified group was Ranbaxy Labs, which closed at Rs 639, a gain of Rs 25.75 over the previous close. FIIs were reported to have purchased shares of ITC, Lakme, L&T, ACC and GA Cement, pushing prices of these scrips substantially higher.

SAIL spurted on speculation of likely hike in the steel prices.