Mumbai, May 15: Pivotals remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today mainly on selling pressure by foreign funds and lack of local support. The Sensex lost 48 points. The sentiment was also affected due to end-account considerations. The closing rates showed widespread small-to-modest losses. The volume of business remained brisk.The BSE sensitive index started better with buying interest at heavy weighted counters at 3924.41. But later, bull operators started squaring up their positions, and the Sensex dropped to an intra-day low of 3832.86 before closing at 3849.80 with a net loss of 48.14 points against the previous close of 3897.94. The BSE-100 index finished at 1700.03, losing 19.23 points over yesterday's close of 1719.26.Brokers said that the fresh fall was due to lack of local buying and selling pressure by the FIIs. The market witnessed some activity from domestic funds which purchased shares of Hindustan Lever, SBI, Telco, Castrol, , thus reducing the fall in index. ACC firmedup by Rs 81.50 to Rs 1709.50 on expections of concessions in cement industry. Shares of software companies also rose moderately on speculative buying. The total turnover was Rs 1401.62 crore. ITC registered highest volume of Rs 362.34 crore.On the National Stock Exchange (NSE) share prices reacted moderately on squaring up positions by foreign funds and domestic institutions. The NSE-50 index opened at 1119.15, touched a low of 1104.20 and closed at 1110.10 showing a drop of 8.55 points from the previous close of 1118.65. The total traded value was Rs 1,861.74 crore.
