Volatile trend on Lyons Range

By A Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, APRIL 8. Volatile conditions were prevailed on the Calcutta Stock Exchange last week. The starting was on a depressed note but there was a visible improvement subsequently helped by buying support forthcoming from institutional investors of foreign origin. Even so, the sentiment was more helped by the spurt in the techno-laced Nasdaq which in turn provided some impetus to the software counters with cement and other old economy shares also meeting buyers favour.

In the wake of the recovery effected by the uptrend, the BSE's sensex touched a high of 3676.82 and the CSE's 40-share indeed 1909.96 points. But the levels could not be sustained due to subsequent profit booking which knocked off most of the gains in prices. As a result, while the sensex closed at 3576 points, the CSE index settled at 1976.43 points. This compares with the previous week close of 3604.38 points and 1885.43 points respectively.

During the truncated 4-day week other developments outside the trading ring included the first meeting of the governing board of the CSE without the representatives of brokers who have resigned enbloc earlier. The meeting, presided by Mr. Deepankar Basu, Chairman, Securities Trading Corporation of India Limited, set up a management sub-committee headed by the Executive Director, Mr. Taaps Dutta, to take care of the day-to-day administration and also decided to submit a detailed report to the Securities and Exchange Board of India within a time frame on the situation obtaining at CSE after the recent payment crisis.

Meanwhile, the authorities of CSE have initiated special moves to ensure speedy replenishment of its settlement guarantee fund on which it had to draw heavily during the recent payment crisis, the net amount being of the order of Rs. 48 crores. While introducing economy measures wherever possible in view of the substantial fall in the volume of business, the authorities have taken steps by sending official to Chennai to obtain DSQ Software shares transferred to CSE as early as possible. These shares submitted to the CSE by some of the defaulting brokers towards their dues are currently in physical form needing conversion into dematerialised shares, before they can be disposed off.

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Section  : Business
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