The Hindu : Equities drift further on BSE

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 01, 2002

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Business

Equities drift further on BSE

MUMBAI MAY 31. Led by software bellwether, Infosys Technologies, equities drifted downwards on the Bombay Stock Exchange today as concerns of rising tension on the Indo-Pak border pushed down the Sensex by yet another 10.16 points to close at 3125.73.

The benchmark registered a six-month low of 3097.73 in intraday deals due to distress selling.

Heavyweight, Infosys suffered a sharp setback on foreign institutional investors selling, who reportedly sold shares worth Rs. 235 crores in the first three sessions of the week. Selling in select old-economy heavyweights such as HLL, L&T, Grasim and Satyam Computer also aided the downtrend.

Dealers said FIIs seemed to be pulling out of the market on fears of war as the tension between India and Pakistan was escalating.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened steady at 3136.41 and was trapped in a narrow range between 3140.03 and 3097.73 before finishing at 3125.73 against 3135.89. The broad-based BSE-100 index also eased by 4.71 points to 1596.71 from 1601.42.

Meanwhile, the news of privatisation of India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog yesterday and promise of Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, to stop cross-border terrorism "within certain period", got a limited response from the market.

However, petrochem giant, Reliance Industries, attracted good buying support from company circles and recovered smartly mitigating the Sensex fall.

In the specified group, 104 including 17 index-based scrips registered losses while 60 others closed with gains. — PTI

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