MUMBAI, MARCH 17: After a weak spell, pivotals on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) rallied on emergence of short covering coupled with buying support by financial institutions. The closing rates showed small changes. The volume of business remained brisk. The closing undertone appeared steady.The BSE sensitive index recovered from the intra-day low of 3729.13 to finish at 3791.17 with a minor gain of 5.95 points from the previous level of 3785.23. The BSE-100 index gained 3.10 points to 1638.36 from the previous level of 1635.26.Brokers said that the sentiment was subdued during the major part in view of today being the last session on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for the current settlement. However, FIIs and domestic funds purchased shares of index based scrips, especially, consumer companies which improved the sentiment.FII support was evident in HDFC, Infosys Tech and Tata Tea while the domestic funds purchased shares of Tisco, Reliance, Tata Tea and Tata Power. The total turnover was Rs1146.93 crore.On the NSE, a low sentiment prevailed and pivotals witnessed a decline on the last day of current settlement. Reflecting the trend, NSE-50 (Nifty) index opened at 1090.25, touched the day's high of 1090.25, fell to the day's low of 1072.70 and later closed at 1083.30 showing a net loss of 7.15 points over the previous close of 1090.45. According to leading traders, profit-taking by bull operators and squaring up halted the uptrend. The Midcap index drifted lower by 7.65 points to 1239.00 as against the previous close of 1246.65. Total turnover during the day was Rs 1436.91 crore.
