Pivotals stage recovery

FIIs made fresh purchases in select counters like Satyam Computers, Pentafour Software, Castrol, Telco and Zee Telefilms. The FII support was due to the continuous uptrend in Asian markets despite ongoing US attack on Iraq. UTI, however, reportedly sold heavily in high priced stocks like HLL, ITC and some pharma shares.

The volume of business was down by Rs 102.67 crore to Rs 1251.40 crore from yesterday8217;s turnover of Rs 1354.07 crore. Satyam Computer firmed up by Rs 34 to Rs 630, ITC rose by Rs 6 to Rs 696, Telco by Rs 4.70 to Rs 141.30, Pentafour byRs 25.75 to Rs 512 and Zee Telefilms by Rs 9 to Rs 586.25 on buying support.

At Tokyo market, the Nikkei Index closed higher by 67.30 points to 14194.29 points, the Hang Seng index at Hong Kong market registered a smart gain of 142.92 points to 10,226.23 points while the FTSE-100 at London reported marginal gain of 2.8 points at 5688.00 points immediately after the opening of market.

On the National Stock Exchange NSE, equities staged a moderate recovery on good buying support from foreign funds. The Samp;P CNX Nifty index opened at 830.30 touched the day8217;s high of 838.80 low of 827.30 points before closing at 835.20 showing a net gain of 4.95 points from the previous close of 830.25 points. About 513 securities advanced, 414 declined while 130 remain unchanged. 23 securities hit their price bands.