Pivotals remain subdued

MUMBAI, Dec 18: After the past three sessions8217; uptrend, pivotals remained slightly subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange today on emergance of profit taking at the higher level coupled with limited buying by the financial institutions. The selling pressure was also due to end-account considerations. The volume of business remained below normal. The BSE sensitive index which crossed the 3500-mark and touched the intra-day high of 3525.60 and declined to finish 3472.35 with a loss of 14.67 points compared to the previous level of 3487.02. The BSE-100 index eased by 4.83 points to 1509.86 from previous close of 1514.69.

Brokers said apart from the end-account considerations, the profit taking was also triggered by high call money rates of around 40 to 45 per cent during the initial trading hours. The FIs made buying only in few select heavy weighted index scrips. Foreign funds too had slowed down their purchases due to approaching year-end. ITC remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 204.92 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 708.94 crore followed by Reliance of Rs 120.45 crore, Tata Tea Rs 92.42 crore, SBI Rs 79.75 crore and Castrol Rs 56.11 crore. ITC lost Rs 13 at 580, SBI declined by Rs 3.75 at 222.75, Tata Steel by Rs 1.25 to 127.75 and Castrol Rs 10.75 to 722.50.

On the NSE, equity prices lost initial advantage and gradually declined to close with modest losses. The NSE-50 opened 1013.50 and closed 1009.70, showing a loss of 3.45. Dollar NSE-50 opened 894.65 and closed 891.35. The Midcap opened 1138.30 and closed 1136.05. The total turnover was Rs 1,387.27 crore.