Early gains not held on BSE

MUMBAI, AUG. 6. Equities lost their early gains and select key stocks even registered marked falls in a dramatic late turnaround on the opening day of new account on the Bombay Stock Exchange today in the wake of heavy selling pressure from domestic mutual funds.

Indian mutual funds, led by the Unit Trust of India (UTI), reportedly availed the opportunity of the initial upsurge to book profits at higher levels.

Reliance and key cement stocks such as L&T, Grasim and GACL that hogged the limelight throughout, however, provided some respite to the Sensex.

Foreign institutional investors are believed to have made sizable investments right from the resumption of trading, shifting their focus to the old economy stocks. FIIs stepped up activity in the past few days in the light of upbeat mood on the Wall Street on the back of rating upgrades of chip makers, with their net purchases rising comparatively to Rs. 139 crores in the first four days of last week as against Rs. 63 crores in the preceding week.

After opening fractionally down at 3323.36, the BSE benchmark 30- share index rose to the day's high of 3356.34 but failed to maintain the higher levels due to late selling. It closed at 3329.95 against last Friday's close of 3325.38, netting a small gain of 4.57 points.

The BSE-100 index eased marginally to 1581.05 from the previous close of 1581.95.

Seventeen index-based shares including Reliance, Grasim, GACL, L&T, Bajaj Auto, Telco, Hindalco, Ranbaxy, Cipla and HPCL recorded marked gains, while 12 others finished with losses.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex were quoted almost steady at 346.81 and 122.54 compared with last weekend close of 346.82 and 122.59 respectively.

The BSE-500 index inched up to 1016.84 from the previous close of 1016.31.

The dollex-30 index also was barely changed, closing at 580.20 from last Friday's close of 579.65.

The volume was extremely low at Rs. 850.24 crores compared to last weekend's turnover of Rs. 1,002.44 crores.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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