Easy trend in the BLESS charges was attributed to several factors by the brokers, one of them being the reduction in bank rate by 50 basis points by the Central bank. As the net outstanding also fell significantly, the demand for funds also went down correspondingly, pulling down badla rates, they said.

The highlight of the Saturday BLESS session was that five stocks were traded for backwardation charges (undha badla). Two wheeler major Bajaj Auto attracted backwardation charge of Rs 0.25, PSU refinery stock BPCL traded at Rs 0.61, FMCG major HLL attracted undha badla of Rs 0.26, Rhone Poulenc Rs 0.09 and ICICI Bank attracted backwardation charges of Rs 3.56.

The Bajaj Auto counter which is attracting backwardation charge consistently for more than four settlements saw net outstanding of 1.42 lakh shares carried forward valued at Rs 4.74 crore. At the BPCL counter, 75,820 shares valued at Rs 1.55 crore were carried forward, while 9.79 lakh shares valued at Rs 22.75 crore were carried forward at the HLL counter. ICICI Bank counter saw 5.56 lakh shares carried forward, valued at Rs 10.25 crore and at the Rhone-Poulenc counter, 26,636 shares valued at Rs 2 crore were carried forward.

Other major stocks which were traded for BLESS session on Saturday included RIL for Rs 0.73, Satyam Computers for Rs 0.50, Glaxo for Rs 0.94, ITC for Rs 1.26, NIIT for Rs 1.92, Novartis for Rs 0.70, Digital Equipment for Rs 0.94, Silverline Technologies for Rs 0.28, Ranbaxy for Rs 0.63, Tata Elxsi for Rs 0.19, Global Telesystems for Rs 0.59, HDFC Bank for Rs 0.10, Nestle for Rs 0.95, Infosys Technologies for Rs 9.42, HFCL for Rs 1.13, Wipro for Rs 3.83 and Zee Telefilma for Rs 0.26.