Speculatives Rebound Despite Lacklustre Trading

Speculatives recovered their initial losses and even posted moderate gains in lacklustre activity on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday following shortcovering by operators and buying support from a leading financial institution.

Reflecting the weak trend, the Sensex dropped to 3316.71 after a subdued start at 3356.10. However, it recouped smartly to close at 3364.97 from 3356.83, a rise of 8.14 points over the previous close, as buying emerged in the latter part of the session on news of a proposal of only 12 per cent increase in freight rates in the Railway Budget presented by the railway minister, Ram Vilas Paswan.

 

The BSE-100 index edged up from its Tuesdays close of 1463.07 to 1465.39. The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted up at 325.99 and 151.35 compared with 325.34 and 150.92, gaining 0.65 and 0.43 respectively.

The total traded value of shares on the bourse was Rs 535.23 crore with the A group stocks contributing Rs 516.53 crore and B1 and B2 group shares chipping in Rs 13.98 crore and Rs 4.55 crore respectively to the days tally. Among major stocks, the Reliance stock topped the traded volume table with 47.17 lakh shares worth Rs 123.38 crore being traded. The stock finished the day at Rs 263.75 as against Rs 261.75 on Tuesday.

A major finance company was reported to have sold large chunk of shares of Steel Authority of India and Telco. The initial weakness was attributed to suggestions in the Pre-Budget Economic Survey which had called for an increase in the prices of petroleum products, keeping fiscal deficit below 4 per cent and removal of price control. Foreign institutional investors and most of the operators had a adopted wait and watch attitude till the Union Budget was presented on Friday. Brokers said the market is likely to witness a smart rally on the day of the Budget.