Sustained buying on Lyons Range

By A Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, DEC. 10. Riding the crest of a boom, cyclical shares maintained their recent upswing on the Calcutta Stock Exchange and other major bourses, due to sustained buying. Incidentally, bulk of the buying was delivery based indicating that the current uptrend is backed by a fair level of investor support. Besides individuals, domestic institutions were also fairly active in picking up new lots. Interest was also noted in key software counters which too posted moderate gains as the week closed providing for a rise in the representative indices as well. The CSE's 40-share index wound up at 1924.19 points.

Once again there was perceptible interest in cash shares helping several in this group to move up further in somewhat enlarged dealings. And, with buying noted over a broad front in the specified group, the overall business volume also recorded a noticeable increase. There was indeed profit booking at higher levels.

Among the major gainers was the ACC counter which scored Rs.12.50 gains to settle at Rs.156.90, while Tata Steel looked up to Rs.131.30 from 122.60. State Bank also posted moderate gains at Rs.196.90 and ITC extended its rallying trend to close at Rs.859.90.

Other gainers in the specified group included Bata, Hindalco, Hind Motor, IPCL, ICICI, Indo Gulf, Larsen & Toubro and Kesoram. The two fertiliser counters, namely Nagarjuna Fertiliser and Spic, which had been ruling below the face value for quite sometime in the recent past moved forward to be pegged at Rs.10.30 and Rs.12.15 respectively.

The recent improved interest in cash listed shares persisted in the market helping some of the counters to look up. This welcome change in turn shows that small investor buying is also there in the market, though not large enough to provide the necessary momentum for a major uptrend in values. The urgent need now as far as the capital market is concerned is to provide the necessary incentives to boost investor confidence which alone will attract the individual investor in a big way.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Old economy stocks join the rally
Next     : India moots guidelines on visas, work permits at
           the WTO