Dalal Street made a strong comeback on Friday as buying interest resumed in stocks after a recent fall. After the 516-point slump in Sensex in the last eight days, the benchmark Sensex rallied by 100 points.Though the index recorded the lowest close for 2004 on Thursday, the BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) ended with a re-ensuring gain of 1.80 per cent at 5,667.51 the very next day. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty Index gained 34.50 points to end at 1,800.30, recovering from the day’s low of 1,763.95.Despite the gains, the Sensex ended 183.21 points lower for the week and 28.16 points lower for the month.Although the market displayed volatile movements intra-day, the mood in the market appeared optimistic after the expiry of the February series futures contracts on Thursday. Besides, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie’s tough talk to financial advisers led to a sharp increase in subscriptions to the ongoing public offers of IBP, Dredging Corporation, CMC and IPCL.“The market had traded weak for most part of the week amid fears that liquidity in the market may get squeezed out on account of crowding of public offers from government companies. However, bargain hunting in blue chips lifted the market on Friday,” said a dealer.Despite the reasonable response to ongoing public offers, concerns over liquidity still persisted on account of the mega public offer of ONGC, which is expected to garner over Rs 10,000 crore for the government. Marketmen expect the liquidity in the secondary market to improve after the ONGC issue is over.Meanwhile, foreign funds turned net buyers, putting in a net Rs 53 crore on February 25 as compared to an outflow of Rs 270.20 crore on Tuesday. FIIs had pulled out a net Rs 438 crore in two trading sessions (Monday, Tuesday). Cumulative FII inflows for February 2004 have reached Rs 2,510.10 crore.Tech pivotals ended with smart gains as buying resumed on these counters after a recent weakness. Satyam Computer rose from Rs 290.50 to a high of Rs 310.90, before settling at Rs 309.60, up 6.94% over its previous close.
