Pivotals show mixed trend

MUMBAI, May 15: After the previous session's smart rally, pivotals generally showed a mixed trend on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today ...

MUMBAI, May 15: After the previous session8217;s smart rally, pivotals generally showed a mixed trend on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today on alterantive bouts of buying and selling. However, ITC attracted heavy buying support reportedly by foreign institutional investors. While, Bajaj Auto dropped on profit taking. Others closed with small to modest changes. The volume of business remained moderate. The closing undertone appeared uncertain.

The BSE sensitive index moved erratically in a range of 3767.21 and 3713.48 to finish at 3741.22 with a minor gain of 0.69 points compared to the previous level of 3740.53. The BSE-100 index also showed small variations at 1614.74 from the previous close of 1614.96.

Brokers said that the market sentiment turned slightly subdued today mainly on profit taking in select counters following a hint given by the chairman Rahul Bajaj that he is not going to recommend to the board of Bajaj Auto a 1:1 bonus issue in their forthcoming meeting on May 19. The profit taking was also on rumours of a hike in the prices of petroleum products.

Marketmen, however, were covering their short positions in a few select scrips, particularly, side stocks in view of the end-account considerations. The steady trend in sensex helped fresh buying in few select index based scrips.

ITC attracted the highest volume with a turnover of Rs 233.39 crore in the total volume of business of Rs 628.60 crore followed by SBI of Rs 146.66 crore, Reliance of Rs 73.45 crore, Telco of Rs 26.65 crore and Bajaj Auto of Rs 24.13 crore.

ITC spurted by Rs 13 to Rs 421.25 on speculative support. Smithkline Pharma also rallied by Rs 27 to Rs 309 on fresh buying. Siemens, Tata Tea, Arvind Mills, Hindalco, BSES, Mahindra and Mahindra, Castrol, Gujarat A Cement and HPCL also remained better. Reliance lost by Rs 2.75 to Rs 293.50 and SBI by Rs 1.25 to Rs 303 on lack of buying. Bajaj Auto declined by Rs 29.50 to Rs 885.75 on profit taking. BPCL, Hero Honda, Hindustan Motors, BHEL, ACC, Glaxo and Indian Hotels also remained subdued.

On the National Stock Exchange NSE share prices improved marginally on increased speculative buying. Reflecting the sentiment, the NSE-50 index opened steady at 1041.65 and rose further to 1049.00, before closing at 1045.00, showing a gain of 3.35 from the last close of 1041.65. Meanwhile, the Midcap started better at 1142.90 and improved to 1146.15. Later, it dropped to touch 1137.70 before closing at 1139.95 as against the last close of 1139.34, thus displaying a marginal gain of 0.61. The total volume was Rs 1,526.19 crore.