On Friday, the Sensex closed 24 points higher at 3337.49 after moving in a narrow range of 3351.84 and 3319.34 points for most part of the day. Brokers say the rally next week is likely to be led by Hindustan Lever. The company, which is scheduled to announce its third-quarter results on February 15, is likely to report a net profit of around Rs 800 crore. Analysts are unanimous about the company posting higher than estimated results and believe that it could trigger a further rally in the scrip. HLL hasalready appreciated by over 10 per cent during the week and closed at Rs 2018 on Friday.

Satyam Computer and Pentafour Software resumed their upward march on Friday after yesterday's low-key performance. Satyam closed Rs 46.50 higher at Rs 950, while Pentafour closed higher at Rs 881. The rally in the second-line software stocks also continued with Silverline closing higher by Rs 16.8 at Rs 213.55. Rolta ended the day up 5.1 per cent at Rs 126. In the pharma sector, there was good demand for shares of Glaxo, Knoll Pharma, Smithkline Beecham, Dr Reddy's and Ranbaxy. Ranbaxy witnessed heavy activity with record volumes of 6.61 lakhs on BSE. The scrip closed at the upper-end of the circuit filter at Rs 371.55. Glaxo also attracted buying on expectation of superb third-quarter results to be announced on February 25. The scrip closed higher at Rs 680.

Another scrip which attracted a lot of attention was MTNL, which climbed back from its recent low on the back of heavy institutional and speculative support toclose at Rs 163.80. Smithkline Beecham Consumer hit the upper-end of the circuit filter on rumours of a bonus issue. Tata Tea also continued it upward march and closed at 442.75, up 2.5 per cent. FIs were reported to have made good quantity purchases in scrips like HPCL, SBI, BPCL, MTNL and SAIL.

The turnover on the Bolt system on Friday was Rs 1595.77 crore. Pentafour Software stood first in the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 303.01 crore, followed by ITC Rs 172.89 crore, Satyam Computer Rs 157.81 crore. Other actively traded scrips were Tata Tea (Rs 92.77 crore), Digital Equipment (Rs 77.61 crore), Glaxo India (Rs 47.84 crore), MTNL (Rs 41.48 crore), Zee Telefilms (Rs 41.42 crore), Reliance (Rs 36.92 crore) and Telco (Rs 34.14 crore).

The Digital roller-coaster

Digital Equipments gave a quite few heartaches on Friday. The rollercoaster continued for most part of the day, before closing at the upper-end of the circuit filter. After opening at the upper-end of thecircuit filter at Rs 319.10, the scrip was hammered to the lower-end of the price band at Rs 275.10. From there, the bounced back to the upper ceiling and then dropped to Rs 275. The stock finally closed at Rs 319.10. For the tenth day in succession, the stock has ended the day with a gain and it seems operators were unfazed by the volatility margin the scrip attracted after witnessing such a sharp upsurge during the week.

The activity in the Digital counter peaked on Friday with more than 25 lakh shares being traded on both BSE and NSE. In terms of value traded, Digital Equipment inched to the fifth slot on the BSE after Pentafour Software, ITC, Satyam Computers and Tata Tea. Digital's total traded value shot up to over Rs 77.1 crore on BSE.

The scrip has been riding high and has zoomed from Rs 169 to Rs 315 in ten trading sessions. Apart from active buying by a few FIIs, rumours of the company hiving off its hardware division for a consideration of around Rs 100 crore has also driven the stock beyondthe Rs 300 level. On Thursday, the scrip had frozen at the upper-end of the filter with an outstanding buy order of 3.43 lakh shares. On Friday, the stock closed at Rs 319.10 with an outstanding order of over 63,000 shares.