Shares stage modest recovery

MUMBAI, SEPT. 24. The lifting of the 1998 sanctions by the U.S. against India helped stocks stage a smart recovery on the Bombay Stock Exchange today following sizable institutional support.

As a result, the BSE barometer recouped by relatively modest 52 points after a huge fall of 583.51 points in repeated onslaughts in the past nine sessions since the September 11 terrorist attack on the U.S.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened firm at 2627.25 and rallied smartly to the intra-day high of 2688.95 in response to the U.S. decision to waive sanctions against India.

However, it later reacted marginally to close at 2651.78 against last Friday's close of 2600.12, netting a smart gain of 51.66 points or 1.99 per cent.

The BSE-100 index also rose by 36.65 points to 1253.02 from last weekend's close of 1216.37.

Had it not been for retail investors which availed the opportunity to book profits at higher levels, market sources said stocks and the Sensex in turn, would have been better placed at the close.

Considering the rapidly deteriorating U.S. economic outlook with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index crashing by a whopping 14.3 per cent and 16.1 per cent last week, a section of marketmen were still pessimistic about the trend. Others felt that the sentiment has changed for the better and the market was now on recovery path.

In the specified group, 138 including 20 index-based counters registered sharp to moderate gains while 36 others closed with losses. While Wipro and Moser Baer were stuck in 20 per cent upper circuit filter, derivatives such as ICICI, NIIT and Digital Global were locked in 10 per cent upper price band on the BSE.

The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 index were quoted sharply up at 276.41 and 96.01 at close compared with last weekend close of 268.39 and 93.07 respectively. The BSE-500 index shot up by 23.00 points to 815.18 from the previous close of 792.18. The Dollex-30 was up by 9.59 Points to 454.23.

The volume remained low but relatively up at Rs. 934.48 crores against Rs. 882.70 crores.

- PTI

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