Volatility dips as liquidity ebbs

Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, July 17: The stock markets continued to remain lacklustre with only a narrow movement in stock prices. Initial volatility witnessed in the market after July 2 is also fading out in the wake of low liquidity.

The ongoing Unit Trust of India (UTI) crisis is also holding back some players in making fresh purchases. Trading sentiment in the market is so weak that the intra-day volatility in the market was of just 43 points for the BSE Sensex on Tuesday.

The Sensex opened weak at 3414.06 as compared to previous close of 3434.83. It slid further downwards to reach the intra-day low of 3397.65 but shot up to 3440.29 before closing at 3431.93, a net loss of 2.90 points. S&P CNX Nifty followed suit and lost 2.45 points to close at 1,103.1 points.

The DSQ Software counter continued to bleed profusely as the stock once again on Tuesday lost close to 11 per cent to close at Rs 49. Gujarat Narmada was the top loser and was down 11.44 per cent at Rs 23.60. The SSi stock fell by by 6.45 per cent to close at Rs 232.65.

Tata Steel was the top loser among the index stocks with the counter losing 4.48 per cent to close below the Rs 100-level at Rs 99.25. PSU engineering giant Bhel attracted profit-booking at the improved level and lost 3 per cent to close at Rs 170.60. SBI also lost 2.77 per cent to close at Rs 218.

Infosys Technologies continued to be the most active counter on the BSE with the stock clocking a turnover of Rs 219.23 crore and close to 5.86 lakh shares changing the hands. Other top traded stocks included Wipro (Rs 89.97 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 72.10 crore), Digital Equipment (Rs 47.34 crore) and NIIT (Rs 39.39 crore).
Cement stocks like L&T and ACC, pharma majors Cipla and Ranbaxy, media stocks like Zee Tele and Satyam Computer and others like ICICI also closed with minor losses.