The Hindu : Equities move up on short covering

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 26, 2004

Business

Business

Equities move up on short covering

MUMBAI, MARCH 25. Equities generally moved upwards at the fag end pushing the Sensex up by 19 points at close in an otherwise erratic movement on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday on short covering by operators coupled with fresh purchases by foreign institutional investors. The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened moderately higher at 5403.38 and later fluctuated between 5438.86 and 5368.88 before ending at 5414.44 against 5395.28, netting a gain of 19.16 points. The BSE-100 index moved up further by 15.90 points to 2856.92.

The market overcame a negative reaction as a result of short-covering by operators in the last 30 minutes in the futures and options segment that had concluding session for its March contract, brokers said. Buoyed by consistent net investments by FIIs for the past several sessions, operators and retailers reportedly made fresh commitments in the cash segment. The FIIs have reported a hefty net purchases of Rs. 707 crores in the first two sessions.

Sentiment had changed for the better in view of steady flow of buying support from operators and retailers for the past two sessions, brokers added. Blue chip stocks such as Reliance, Tisco, SBI, Tata Motors, HPCL, Satyam Computer, Infosys, L&T, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Bharti Tele, ACC and Tata Power scored impressive gains.

However, Hindustan Lever, Dr. Reddy's Lab, Grasim, HDFC, Cipla, GACL, Hindalco, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto suffered a marked setback due to fresh selling pressure.In the specified group, 136 including 15 index-based scrips registered moderate gains while 57 others finished with losses.

PTI

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