Rally in pivotals lifts Sensex by 58 points

MUMBAI, JUNE 19. An impressive rally in heavyweight counters ITC, HLL and Infosys lifted the Sensex by about 58 points at close in fairly good dealings on the Bombay Stock Exchange today following fresh purchases by foreign institutional investors.

Domestic operators, however, were continuously winding up long positions, dealers said adding ``the net outstandings have come down substantially and stood at about Rs. 500 crores at the beginning of the session''.

Foreign institutional investors reportedly were net buyers in ITC, Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computer and Wipro. Domestic financial institutions too picked up shares of several Indian stocks in good quantity at lower levels.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately up at 3357.11 and gradually moved upwards in restricted activity to close at 3410.95 against yesterday's close of 3353.11, showing a net gain of 57.84 points or 1.72 per cent.

The BSE-100 index rose by 20.90 points to 1653.90 from the previous close of 1633.00.

Generally, retail investors and domestic operators were squaring up positions and even tried to reduce their holdings on fears of a sharp fall in liquidity after the introduction of rolling settlement from July 2.

Though FIIs have slowed down activity after making record net investments in the first five months of the year, they remained selective buyers and sometimes even booked profits in key stocks, market sources said.

In the specified group, 94 including 23 index-based counters registered smart gains while 74 others closed with substantial losses.

Among the index shares, key heavyweights such as Grasim, HLL, ITC, Infosys, Reliance, SBI, Tisco, Zee Telefilms, L&T and MTNL scored handsome gains.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex were quoted smartly up at 365.37 and 129.51 compared with the previous close of 360.37 and 127.68 respectively. The BSE-500 index improved by 13.96 points to 1075.31 from yesterday's close of 1061.35.

- PTI

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