MUMBAI, JANUARY 31: Buying support from local financial institutions could not stem the slide on the bourses due to offloading by operators and the general gloom generated by the fall in the American markets (the Nasdaq went down by 152 points last Friday) and the South Asian stocks which suffered losses this morning - chiefly on account of the cooling-off in Wall Street - (though Tokyo recouped some of the early losses due to the excitement generated by a large investment trust fund). Besides the foreign markets' impact, last week's high badla rates of 30 per cent also triggered off the selling, dealers said.Wipro which had witnessed steady buying till last week, hit the lower circuit at 3778 but recovered towards the fag end of the session to close at 4,000. This remarkable recovery in the last 10 minutes came when about 20,000 shares were bought.
The opening for the day was firm but in the latter half of the day, as a result of huge selling pressure especially in index-based counters, the Sensex witnessed a 131-point fall.
For the Sensex, the main damage came from Infosys, which showed a fall of more than four per cent dipping to a low of Rs 7100 from an intra-day peak of Rs 7450. Hindustan Lever too showed a fall of nearly two per cent. ITC, Reliance, SBI and Ranbaxy too showed a fall of more than one per cent each. However, index-based stocks like Bhel, ICICI and Hindalco showed a fall of nearly eight per cent each.
Among the index-based counters, NIIT, Telco, MTNL and HPCL were few counters which showed a positive close. The Sensex opened at 5338.57 points, and touched an intra-day high of 5345 points. Before closing at 5205.29 points, it dipped to a low of 5186.32 points.
The number of advances is continue to be low at 957. While 1136 stocks showed a negative close, around 189 stocks remained unchanged. The trading volume on Monday was quite high at Rs 4251 crore on the BSE.
The day started on a weak note for the software sector, but it showed a smart recovery during the first hour of the day. In fact, counters like HCL Infosys, SSI, and Pentafour Software hit their upper circuits. However, huge selling on Himchal Futuristic counter changed the scenario dramatically, and selling then spread to all the software counters. On closing, Pentafour, Digital Equipment, Satyam Computers, SSI, Wipro, Tata Elxsi, Silverline, and Himachal Futuristic showed a significant fall.
Meanwhile, in the specified list, stocks like Parke Davis, Pfizer, Sterlite, Raymond, Novartic, ICICI Bank and BASF showed impressive gains. Stocks like Zee Telefilms, ACC, Aptech, Reliance Petro, ICICI, Colgate, Wockhardt, Reliance Capital, Siemens, IDBI, Century, and Crompton Greaves remained main losers.
In the non-specified list, stocks like Rolta, Padmini Poly, SQL Star, Apollo Hospital, Deccan Hospitals, Peerless Shipping, Centum Electro, Advent Computers, BEML, and Clio Finance showed smart gains.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.