Stocks recover after shaky start

MUMBAI, MARCH 28: Share prices rallied after a weak start on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today mainly on buying support by financial i...

MUMBAI, MARCH 28: Share prices rallied after a weak start on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today mainly on buying support by financial institutions. Sensex, which fell 112 points intra-day, recovered by 10 points. The financial year-end pressure continued to cast its shadow on the market movements as most of the operators were busy in settling their transactions for the taxation purpose.

Sensex which started at 5094.17 moved between 5156.23 and 5044.17 before closing at 5156.12, showing a net gain of 9.82 points against the previous close of 5146.30. The trend was very much similar on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where the S&P CNX Nifty gained by 10.10 points at 1573.05 from the previous close of 1562.95.

Brokers said leading the recovery were shares like Satyam Computer Services which ended Rs 165 higher at Rs 5,290, off a low of Rs 4,832.25, Hindustan Lever which closed Rs 34.60 up at Rs 2,534.50, off Rs 2,461, Infosys Technologies which ended Rs 394.45 down at Rs 10,047.20, but off a low of Rs 9,711.55.

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News that private sector ICICI Bank had collected $2 billion against its proposed $175 million target in an American Depositary Receipt offering, saw its shares jump eight per cent in closing minutes of trade to Rs 261.35 The share had been down in early deals on its decision to make additional provisions of Rs 135 million under the US GAAP rules in the fourth quarter, towards non performing loans.

Reliance Industries and Wipro which were among gainers in morning deals, extended gains to end eight per cent higher at Rs 280.45 and Rs 6,009.25 respectively. Global Tele-systems ended eight per cent higher at Rs 2,676.15 The firm said it had received an inflow of Rs 1.3 billion from the securitisation of assets in consumer telecom and related software assets.

MTNL ended off a low of Rs 231 at Rs 245, Rs five below the previous close. Data from the BSE showed 908 issues advanced, 707 declined and 122 were unchanged.

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