The Hindu : Business : Equities forge ahead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 23, 2004

Business

Business

Equities forge ahead

MUMBAI, JULY 22. Responding to favourable amendment in the transaction tax, investors today made heavy commitments aiding the Sensex to end 61 points up at two-month high of 5054.29 despite weak global advices and monsoon worries. The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened with a wide upward gap of over 47 points at 5041.14 and gradually moved upwards to the intra-day high of 5082.81 before ending at 5054.29 against yesterday's close of 4993.76, a net rise of 60.53 points or 1.21 per cent.

Increase in volume

The volume too has increased remarkably as day traders, arbitrageurs and derivative traders entered the market in full strength as welcome gesture to the Government's overnight decision to amend the proposal of transaction tax, adopting differential rates for different classes of securities. The controversial tax has been lowered from 0.15 per cent to 0.015 per cent for day traders, arbitrageurs and derivative traders who contribute large percentage of daily turnover.

Foreign institutional investors, who have turned net buyers in the initial two sessions of the week, reportedly made purchases in some blue chip counters. However, the IT sector witnessed pressure even as the market discounted negative factors such as a sharp fall on Wall Street yesterday and erratic monsoon leading to drought-like conditions in some parts of the country. The Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 42.70 points and 102.94 points respectively yesterday. Key stocks such as RIL, SBI, Tisco, HPCL, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Tele-Ventures and BHEL recorded sharp gains. — PTI

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