MUMBAI, NOV 6: Pivotals once again showed wide movement on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today on alternative bouts of buying and selling. After a weak spell, select scrips rallied at the end on short covering coupled by fresh support extended by the domestic financial institutions. Still, the closing rates showed widespread small losses. The BSE sensitive index opened at 3744.39, lower from the previous close of 3778.23 touched the day's high of 3766.76, declined sharply by 64.20 points to touch the day's low of 3714.03 but later recovered to close at 3763.96.Brokers said that the sentiment was affected mainly due to the withdrawal of the Global Depository Receipts (GDR) issue of Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL). The FIIs made considerable selling on the fundamentally strong counters while there was not much support from domestic institutional investors except UTI. Volume of business was poor with the total turnover amounting to Rs 509.85 crore. ITC was the leader with a turnover of Rs 200.15 crore followed by SBI with Rs 67.59 crore and Castrol Rs 17.09 crore. ITC gained by Rs 5.75 to Rs 566, SBI by 25 P to Rs 259.50 and Tata Tea by Rs 1.50 to Rs 389. Reliance declined by Rs 2.25 to Rs 180.25 and Castrol by Rs 4.25 to Rs 626.75.On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), share prices declined further on increased selling by mutual funds. The NSE-50 index started weak at 1084.80 but soon rose to 1085.20 and closed at 1080.95, showing a fall of 4.05 from the last close of 1185.00. The Midcap index opened better at 1231.65 but declined to 1216.05 and finished at 1223.45, disclosing a fall of 8.15.The market witnessed a total turnover of Rs 1,320.16 crore.
