Rumours mar sentiment

MUMBAI, July 3: After the uptrend in the last a few sessions, pivotals generally remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today ...

MUMBAI, July 3: After the uptrend in the last a few sessions, pivotals generally remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly on profit-taking in view end-account considerations and lack of follow up support at the higher level.

The sharp fall during the mid-session was also in the wake of panic selling triggered by rumours that R N Tata, Chairman of the Tata group, was seriously ill. But Tisco circles, dismissing the quot;mischievous rumoursquot; about Tata8217;s health, said in a statement, that Tata was a fine and attending to his routine work.

Share prices witnessed volatile movement once again on alternative bouts of buying and selling but recovered slightly towards end. The closing rates showed small to modest changes. The volume of business remained moderate and the closing undertone appeared steady.

The BSE Sensex opened higher at 4335.79, touched the day8217;s high 4393.29 and declined to the day8217;s low 4299.97 showing a difference of about 94 points during the course of trading and recovered partially to close at 4323.46, with a net loss of 10.52 points over the previous close of 4333.90.

Similarly the BSE-100 index drifted lower by 5.30 points to 1852.83 against the previous close of 1858.13. According brokers, hectic business activity was noticed in the steel giant Tisco. The market weakened slightly despite fresh buying support from foreign institutional investors FIIs. FIIs made considerable purchases in select counters like Telco, MTNL, Castrol, ICICI and G E Shipping.

Tata steel recorded highest turnover of Rs 262.43 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 884.67 crore. Other active scrips were Reliance Rs 120.32 crore, ITC Rs 120.19 crore, SBI Rs 94.40 crore and Telco Rs 39.39 crore.

Tata Steel shot up by Rs 6.50 to Rs 218 while Reliance dropped by Rs 5 to Rs 363.50, SBI by Rs 3 to Rs 346 on profit-taking.

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On the National Stock Exchange, pivotals witnessed a gradual decline following speculative selling pressure. The NSE-50 index opened at 1622.45, touched the day8217;s high of 1235.45 and later closed at 1214.90, showing a net loss of 8.05 points. The Midcap index drifted lower by 5.35 points to 1192.45 points. Total turnover on the NSE was Rs 1861.09 crore.