Mumbai, Apr 20: Calm descended on the stock markets after four days of volatility driven by the political upheaval. The markets remained more or less flat, with players almost ignoring the credit policy which was on expected lines. In the absence of surprises in the credit policy and the dust settling down in the political capital, players focussed on short-covering. Coupled with select institutional participation, major indices moved in a narrow range. The 30-share Sensex closed at 3,443.99 points registering a net decline of 7.44 points. However the S&P CNX Nifty index witnessed a marginal recovery of 1.50 points to close at 993.90 points.``The credit policy has been insignificant as far as markets are concerned,'' said the director of SSKI, Dheeraj Agarwal. Brokers at large attributed the recovery in market sentiment to three important reasons - short covering by operators, impending results and the return of financial institutions. The marginal decline in the index was attributed to the accumulatingselling pressure at the counter of Hindustan Lever, a sensex heavy weight. The stock lost 2.25 per cent to close at Rs 2,169.50 with a huge volume of 1.59 lakh shares changing hands on the BSE. According to brokers, during the mid-session, the market was agog with rumours that the company is likely to declare a flat result, which triggered off the sale at the day's high of Rs 2,246.
``The index has attained a new bottom of 3,400 points. The next stop would be 3,499 points after which the index is bound to head towards 3,570 levels. However, technically we see a major hurdle at 3,625 levels,'' said BSE broker Neel Dalal. ACC was back in the limelight with the stock trading with a price difference of over Rs 70. On BSE, it closed at Rs 1,487 while on the NSE the stock closed at a premium of over 2 per cent at Rs 1,559. The counter clocked a phenomenal volume of over 4.6 lakh shares on both the local bourses. The huge gap in the closing price was attributed to the short covering at the counter on the NSE,today being the last day of settlement.
Among the infotech stocks, Pentafour took a beating with punters dumping huge chunks of shares at Rs 1,082 levels, the intra-day high. The stock closed at Rs 1,041 registering a net decline of Rs 31. However, other software majors like NIIT and PSI Data Systems registered a major recovery towards the fag end of the session.
Pharma stocks also registered a smart recovery with stocks like Dr Reddy's, Ranbaxy and Pfizer contributing to the upward rise in the S&P CNX Nifty junior index. The rise of over two per cent in the stock value of Ranbaxy has also been accompanied by a simultaneous jump in its volumes. Between Monday and Tuesday, the counter has clocked a volume of over 32 lakh shares only on the BSE. Reliance continued its upward move.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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