Sensitive Index Spurts As Fiis Make Heavy Purchases

Side counters hogged the limelight on the BSE yesterday as the focus of activity shifted from the pivotals. The Sensex ended the day at 4119.39, a gain of 30.19 points over the previous close of 4089.20.

Mirroring the general trend, the Sensex opened at 4088.96, touched an intra-day high of 4121.93, saw a low of 4063.19 before closing at 4119.39. The BSE-100 closed at 1771.25 gaining 12.04 points over the previous close of 1759.21 points. The BSE-200 and the Dollex closed at 392.72 and 182.54 points gaining marginally by 2.06 and 1.60 points respectively

Marketmen said that FIIs were making heavy purchases at counters like Glaxo, HDFC, Finolex Cables, Asian Paints and United Phosphorous. They also added that domestic institutions were holding on to their stocks. Said a dealer at an FII broking house: Due to the prolonged bull run, most of the blue chips are overpriced at the moment. Hence, foreign funds are now targetting the side counters which seem to be attractively priced at the moment.

 

Among the notable gainers were Finolex cables at Rs 155.75 (+Rs 9.75), HDFC at Rs 3879.25 (+Rs 233.25), Glaxo at Rs 356 (+Rs 13.75) and Asian Paints at Rs 331.25(+Rs 15.75). Reliance continued its upward trend with the scrip hitting a 52-week high of Rs 374.75 during intra-day trading before closing at Rs 374.50, a gain of Rs 7.50 over the previous close. Among other index scrips the major gainers of the day were ACC, which closed at Rs 1322(+Rs 87) and Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs 451.75, a gain of Rs 36.

Tata Chemicals saw hectic activity for the third day with the scrip gaining Rs 3.75 to close at Rs 183.50. The East India Hotels scrip capitalised on its good corporate results to close at Rs 431.25 (+Rs 13) while the Indian Hotels scrip moved up by Rs 15.25 ahead of its results to end the day Rs 638.