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FIs, FIIs push equities up; ITC declines despite good results; Sensex rises 31 points to 4060.08

Equities gained moderately on good buying support from foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors, pushing the Sensex up by another 31 points at the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

The foreign institutional investors were seen purchasing selectively while the local institutions also bought at select counters, dealers said.

Impressive financial results declared by tobacco giant ITC were discounted by the market and the ITC scrip dropped by Rs 38.40 to Rs 1074.90 from the previous close at the BSE. ''The results were below the market expectations,'' said a senior dealer of a leading broking firm.

ITC has posted net profit at Rs 6.23 billion in 1998-99, registering an increase of 16 per cent from 1997-98's Rs 5.26 billion.

Dealers said that there were no buyers at the higher levels.

The FIIs purchased shares of Tisco, Telco, Hindustan Lever and State Bank of India.

Institutional buying was witnessed at the counters like Hoechst Agrivo, Bharat Forge, Crompton Greaves, German Remedies, HPCL, Indian Hotel, Satyam Computers, ICICI and Container Corporation, dealers said.

Reflecting the firm trend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensex opened at 4029.24 points, touched the day's high of 4075.39 points, fell to the day's low of 4018.67 points, before closing at 4060.08 points, showing a net gain of 31.10 points from the previous close of 4028.98 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index increased smartly by 17.97 points to 1756.89 points from the previous close of 1738.92 points.

According to market sources, the FIIs net investment in the secondary market in the month of May till May 24 stood at Rs 16.66 billion.

The dealers said that there is no clear indication in the market since the FIIs are not aggressive like in the first fortnight of this month and also the speculators have preferred to avoid taking long-term positions.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices rose further by 4.53 and 1.80 points to 399.73 and 155.71 points as against their previous finish at 395.20 and 153.91 points respectively.

Among the issues, ACC gained by Rs 1.75 to Rs 178.90, BSES Rs 2.75 to Rs 163.50, Burroughs Welcome Rs 21.30 to Rs 731.75, Colgate Rs 11 to Rs 221, Crompton Greaves Rs 1.90 to Rs 42.20, Glaxo Rs 15 to Rs 759, Hero Honda Rs 21.25 to Rs 995, Hindustan Lever Rs 40 to Rs 2,330, Hindalco Rs 78 to 4, 612, L&T Rs 2.40 to Rs 256.40, Mahindra Rs 8 to Rs 240, Pentafour Software Rs 49 to Rs 1200, Procter and Gamble Rs 82 to Rs 1,106, Reliance Rs 4.50 to Rs 170.40, Satyam Computer Rs 16 to Rs 1,528, SBI Rs 16.50 to Rs 264.50, Telco Rs 10.05 to Rs 184.80 and Tisco Rs 4.60 to Rs 114.60. Total turnover on the BSE reported during the day was Rs 17.31 billion.

Pentafour Software topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 2.25 billion, followed by SBI Rs 1.98 billion, ITC Rs 1.65 billion and Satyam Computers Rs 1.18 billion.

Other actively traded counters were Zee Telefilms Rs 718.4 million, MTNL Rs 559.2 million, L&T Rs 442.4 million, Telco Rs 436.3 million, Ranbaxy Rs 407 million, BPL Ltd Rs 401.8 million, Tisco Rs 388.8 million, Tata Tea Rs 310.5 million, Digital Equipment Rs 292.2 million and Sterlite Rs 267.2 million.

UNI

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