Pivotals remain subdued

Mumbai, May 8: Pivotals declined further on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today on selling pressure coupled with lack of buying support. The Sensex lost 48 points. Resuming subdued, share prices reacted as the session progressed to finish around the day8217;s low. The closing rates showed widespread small to modest losses. The volume of business remained below normal. The BSE sensitive index began subdued at 4049.13 and dropped to the intra-day low of 4014.72 before closing at 4022.20 with a net loss of 47.59 points compared to Wednesday8217;s close of 4069.79. The BSE-100 index softened by 21.58 points to 1771.32 from the previous close of 1792.90.

Brokers said that the sentiment was affected mainly because today was the last session for the current settlement. Financial institutions, however, reportedly made moderate purchases in Lamp;T, Tata Tea and SBI. Discouraged by the absence of foreign funds, who seemed to be awaiting a clear picture about the forthcoming budget proposals, bull operators squared off theirlong positions. ITC remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 184.14 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 1140.23 crore.

On the NSE, leading scrips declined on bear pressure from speculators for squaring up positions on the last day of current settlement at the BSE. The NSE-50 index opened at 1172.10, touched a low of 1157.30 and closed at 1161.55, showing a fall of 10.90 points from the previous close of 1172.45. The Midcap closed at 1620.50 showing a decline of 19.65 points from the previous close. The total traded value stood at Rs 1,456.23 crore.