MUMBAI, Jan 22: Profit booking on the last day of the trading cycle at the local bourse saw the 30-share Sensex dip below the psychological barrier of 3,300 points to close at 3,297.86, thus registering a net decline of 32.07 points. However, institutional participants continued to be net buyers on the local bourses. The Skindia GDR index, however, registered a marginal gain to trade at 620.70 points during mid session.On the Bombay Stock Exchange, both domestic and foreign investors were net buyers with FII net investments pegged at Rs 19 crore and domestic institutional purchases at a high of Rs 21 crore.
According to market observers, brokers at large decided not to keep their positions open considering the risk which they would be exposed to with the exchanges closed for trading on January 26. Incidentally, the holiday coincides with the last day of the trading cycle on the NSE.
``Technically today was the last day for both BSE and NSE, hence we saw considerable chunk of profit booking,'' said NeelDalal, BSE broker.
Stocks like IPCL, Telco, HDFC, NIIT, Novartis, Rhone Poulenc and Dr Reddy's Labs witnessed substantial price erosion due to profit booking by domestic institutions and punters during mid session.
FIIs continued to be active at the counters of Zee Telefilms and Pentafour Software. According to market sources, UBS Securities was rumoured to have picked up a substantial chunk of Pentafour Software which reflected on the stock's price. The stock rose by over 5 per cent on the local bourses to close at Rs 930.80 on the National Stock Exchange(NSE). Similarly, huge purchases at the Zee Telefilms counter was attributed to the purchase orders routed through Morgan Stanley broking. However these rumours could not be confirmed.
Zee spurted by over 4 per cent during the mid session to breach the barrier of Rs 600 and trade at the day's high of Rs 626.70. However, in the final countdown, the stock closed a shade lower at Rs 614, witnessing a net gain of 1.9 per cent.
Negotiated and cross dealson the BSE today rose by multiple folds, with leading FIIs like James Capel reporting huge deals at the counters of Punjab Tractors in the price band of Rs 960 to Rs 975. DSP Merrill Lynch and Credit Lyonnais also reported deals at the counters of Cipla and Bajaj Auto respectively.
Interestingly, Morgan Stanley reported a huge deal of 50,000 demat shares of Arvind Mills at Rs 48.75. In the normal segment, the stock was locked at Rs 49.60 on the NSE.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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