Scrips Gain On Short Covering, Selective Fii Buying

Short covering by operators coupled with selective buying by FIIs led to share prices moving up on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) yesterday, with the sensitive index gaining 38.29 points at 3,357.48 points.

According to BSE brokers the market, which had witnessed panic selling on Wednesday from operators on news of heightened tension between the US and Iraq, moved up as operators rushed to short cover their positions.

Market sources said, domestic institutions were mostly buyers, buying stocks like Telco. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought ITC, Bajaj Auto and Castrol counters and sold out in ABB, Tata Tea, East India Hotel and some pharma scrips.

 

The market opened at an higher level on shortcovering by speculators, moved further till the mid-trading and later came down due to profit taking, before finally recovering and closing higher, brokers said.

The 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 3,339.02, touched a high of 3,366.07 before moving down to close at 3,357.48. It picked up 38.29 points against the previous days close of 3,319.19.

The broadbased BSE national index (100 scrips) finished at 1,447.98 points over the last close of 1,435.16 points, gaining 12.82 points. The BSE-200 and Dollex indices settled down at 322.17 and 138.42 points, as compared to the last close of 319.94 and 137.85 points, respectively.

The stocks were in the limelight were Hindustan Lever and Castrol. The market is currently speculating the likely net from the companies, said an equity analyst with a leading BSE broking house. HLL closed at Rs 1,418, a gain of Rs 25 over the previous days close, Castrol closed at Rs 685, up Rs 15, German Remedies at Rs 283 (+Rs 2) and SmithKline Pharma spurted by Rs 42 to close at Rs 607. Our Financial Bureau