FIIs press sales in uncertain market

MUMBAI, OCT. 16. Equities collapsed from early highs, dashing hopes of a positive change in sentiment on the opening day of new account on the Bombay Stock Exchange today in the wake of late selling pressure from speculators and profit selling by foreign institutional investors.

Stocks dived after midsession bringing the Sensex down to around last weekend level as FIIs reportedly pressed heavy sales in a bid to book profits amidst uncertain market behaviour. It closed at 3728.67 against last Friday's close of 3738.93, netting a modest fall of 10.26 points.

The final list, however, showed gains in about 118 scrips and losses in 21 others including heavyweights such as Hindustan Lever, Reliance and Satyam Computer as against previous closing prices.

Reflecting the price volatility, the BSE sensitive index opened strong past 3900-mark at 3908.73 and later touched the day's high of 3930.10.

The initial run up, dealers said, was in keeping with the market expectations following results of a price rally in kerb deals last Saturday, prompted by SEBI's decision to defer the introduction of rolling settlement by about three months and a strong turnaround on the Nasdaq last Friday. The BSE-100 index, however, was moderately up by 12.50 points at 1878.90 against 1866.40.

The Nasdaq composite index, which had been sliding for the past several days, changed its track last weekend by gaining 241.74, its third biggest point-gain. The FIIs had been reducing their investments as market sources said the proposed introduction of rolling settlement would drastically bring down the volume.

Citing the example of 15 cash scrips which were caught in a strong bearish grip after going into rolling settlement a year ago, they said these shares rallied sharply following reports that they will now have the carry forward mechanism.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted up at 402.25 and 144.58 against 398.85 and 143.18 respectively.

The BSE-500 also improved by 11.30 points to 1209.60 from 1198.30.

Infosys Technologies were the most active share with a turnover of Rs. 626.63 crores out of the total business volume of Rs. 4,281.30 crores. Other top traded scrips were Himachal Futuristic (Rs. 616.68 crores), Global Telesystems (Rs. 553.81 crores), Satyam Computer (Rs. 449.28 crores) and Zee Telefilms (Rs. 380.45 crores).

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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