Shares Rebound Sharply On Se Asian Turnaround

Pivotals staged a sharp recovery on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) yesterday on heavy bull support from leading financial institutions and speculative buying from investors, inadvertently helped by a turnaround in the Far East Asian markets.

Even though the foreign funds remained sidelined, the local institutions were inspired by the rally in the Hong Kong market where the Hang Seng index spurted up by 14.3 per cent and other East Asian markets which recovered remarkably after the Chinese new year holidays.

The financial institutions gave full fledged support to heavy weighted scrips such as Tisco, Telco, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India. The sensitive index shot up sharply by 130.44 points to close at 3,354.80 from the previous close of 3,224.36.

 

This was the highest rise in 1998 so far, marketmen said. The foreign institutional investors made moderate purchases but there buying was not aggressive, BSE brokers said and added that encouraged with the strong recovery in Asian markets, speculators made heavy purchases in heavy weighted scrips resulting in the smart rally. Apart from speculators, Unit Trust of India also made marginal purchases, they said.

The BSE-100 gained by 53.45 points to 1,454.83. The BSE-200 closed higher at 324.31 and the Dollex at 139.27 from the last close of 313.63 and 134.17 respectively. Badla charges for the settlement were around 15 per cent per annum while five scrips attracted ulta badla. Some of the blue chip scrips were quoted higher in line with the opening at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where they had risen sharply on Friday last while the BSE had remained closed for Ramzan-Id, brokers said. The total turnover on the Bolt-system was Rs 759.51 crores. ITC, the major tobacco-giant was the leader with a turnover of Rs 185.12 crore.