Bearish trend continues on Lyons Range

By A Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, MARCH 25. The Calcutta Stock Exchange, along with other major bourses of the country, continued to witness difficult conditions for trading last week when price fluctuations were again volatile and the close displayed a pronounced nervousness as evident by the eagerness of operators to cut down their commitments wherever possible, the downtrend being led by technology counters.

The weakness of the market arose from a host of factors like the income tax raid on broker houses at Mumbai, probe initiated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India into the role of some brokers both in Calcutta and Mumbai on suspicion that some of their deals have been not normal and the notice issued to three leading brokers at Calcutta by the CSE authorities asking them to show cause why they cannot be declared defaulters under relevant bye-laws of the exchange and action initiated against them. The three included Mr. Dinesh Sinjghania, a former president and at present a member of the governing board. However he resigned from the board in the midst of the ongoing crisis.

During the week under review the business volume in the market shrunk appreciably and in fact it touched the lowest level of just Rs.57 crores as against normal average of Rs. 1,000 to 1,200 crores partly because of payment crisis and associated problems that kept operators away and cautious. The enquiry into the transactions of some of the broker houses at Mumbai also added nervousness to the market .This was clearly visible on the final day when prices crashed afresh in the wake of a major slide in the technology group which was additionally influenced by the ongoing depression in the U.S. markets and the crash in the Dow Jones average.

Amidst the worst gloom that overtook the markets in the wake of the payment crisis and other developments affecting sentiment adversely, the tobacco giant ITC kept its head above the trough with significant gains it its price.

Operators in Calcutta were heaving a sigh of relief when they were informed by the authorities at the end of the week that the pay in and pay out connected with the latest settlement No.150 held on Thursday have been put through smoothly though for the former they had to draw partly from the trade guarantee fund (TGF). But the relief failed to give them cheer because the news was completely over shadowed by other disturbing developments like the raids at Mumbai broker firms and reports of payment crisis.

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Section  : Business
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