The Hindu : Business : Select blue chips drift lower

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

Business

Business

Select blue chips drift lower

MUMBAI, JUNE 21. Select blue chip stocks drifted lower, pushing the Sensex down by 31 points at close in an extremely low volume on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on fresh selling pressure from retailers and domestic funds amidst absence of any worthwhile purchases by foreign funds.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index opened steady at 4770.65 and later moved irregularly between 4790.93 and 4731.72 before ending at 4738.62 against last Friday's close of 4769.99, a net fall of 31.37 points.

Had it not been for handsome gains in a few heavyweighted counters such as Infosys Technologies, HPCL, Hindalco, HLL, Hero Honda, HDFC, Grasim, BHEL and Wipro, the BSE barometer would have recorded another sharp fall.

Operators were seen covering short positions at lower levels while taking profits at the day's higher levels ahead of the approaching expiry of June contract in the Futures and Options segment.

Retailers seemed to be cautious preferring to wait for the Budget which is expect to spell out the UPA Government's agenda on reforms and economic policies, brokers said.

Foreign institutional investors who generally were engaged in reshuffling their portfolios before the Budget was presented on July 8, seemed to be keeping low profile in the prevailing market situation.

Key stocks such as RIL, Tata Motors, SBI, Tisco, Zee Telefilms, Satyam Computer, RIL, Ranbaxy, MTNL, MUL, ITC, ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy's Lab, GACL and Bharti Tele-Ventures registered marked losses on selling pressure.

The broad-based BSE-100 index moved down further by 18.94 points to 2518.94.

— PTI

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