Sensex makes small gain

MUMBAI, May 19: After a better spell, pivotals led by Bajaj Auto, Tata Tea, and others reacted on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mai...

MUMBAI, May 19: After a better spell, pivotals led by Bajaj Auto, Tata Tea, and others reacted on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly on lack of speculative buying at the higher level. The new account started steady and select scrips improved during the earlier part of the session. But share prices turned subdued soon after the announcement of 1:2 bonus issue by the Bajaj Auto. Still, the closing rates showed small widespread gains. The volume of business crossed Rs 700 crore mark. The undertone at the close remained steady.

The BSE sensitive Index declined from the sessions8217; best level of 3806.15 to finish at 3778.31 with a small gain of 18.67 points compared to the previous level of 3759.64. The BSE-100 Index also gained 8.46 points to 1630.11 from the previous level of 1621.65.

Brokers said that market remains steady despite lower badla charges mainly in absence of specualtive support coupled by limited buying by the financial institutions. The continued flow of discouraging corporate performance also affected the market sentiment. The bonus announced by the Bajaj Auto also remained below the market expectations. Bajaj Auto slumped from the sessions8217; best level of Rs 919 to close at Rs 866 on profit taking.

SBI remained on top of the list with the highest turnover of Rs 230.17 crore in the total volume of business of Rs 707.71 crore followed by ITC of Rs 221.73 crore, Reliance of Rs 58.88 crore, Tata Steel of Rs 36.97 crore and Telco Rs 35.99 crore.

ITC maintained uptrend mainly on speculative buying and advanced further Rs 6.50 to Rs 448.50. SBI rallied from Rs 304 to Rs 315 before closing at Rs 311 with a net gain of Rs 7. TELCO firmed up further from Rs 393.25 to Rs 402 and Tata Steel from Rs 176.50 to close at Rs 179.50 on specualtive support. BPCL, Century Castrol, Colgate, Grasim, HPCL, Indian Hotels, Indian Rayon, Larsen and Lakme remained better.

On the National Stock Exchage NSE pivotals closed marginally higher today s. Reflecting the trend, t. However, they registered marginal gains against their previous close. NSE-50 index opened at 1052.20, touched the day8217;s high of1059.25, declined to the day8217;s low of 1048.05 and closed at 1050.80, showing a net gain of 2.40 points over the previous close of 1048.40.

Similarly, the Midcap Index closed higher by 3.15 points to 1139.65 against the previous close of 1136.50.

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Total turnover on the NSE reported during the day was at Rs 1567.67 crore.