Subdued trend persists

MUMBAI, May 28: Equities once again remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly due to the absence of speculative supp...

MUMBAI, May 28: Equities once again remained subdued on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE today mainly due to the absence of speculative support and limited buying by financial institutions. After a steady spell, select pivotals staged a moderate recovery on scattered bull support at lower levels and selective purchases by foreign institutional investors FIIs.

Others suffered setback on selling pressure. The volume of business continued to be thin but recovered slightly compared to the previous session.The BSE sensitive index moved in a narrow range between 3718.24 and 3670.51 before closing at 3685.31, with small loss of 7.24 points compared the previous level of 3670.51.

The BSE-100 index eased further by 4.13 ponts to 1586.15 from the previous level of 1590.28.Brokers said despite the announcement of excellent working results by Telco and Hero Honda, the market sentiment continued to be subdued mainly due to lack of local interest. Brisk activity was witnessed in TELCO 8212; which moved up to Rs 408 in kerb deals yesterday 8212; after the announcement of results failed to attracted fresh support and the scrip declined on profit-taking.

HPCL and MTNL met with moderate purchases by FIIs and scored impressive gains.Operators had lost interest in doing business in the absence of any market-moving factors and discouraging working results announced by several companies.

Telco remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 120.01 crore in the total volume of Rs 508.16 crore followed by SBI of Rs 99.05 crore, ITC of Rs 78.14 crore, Reliance of Rs 70.01 crore and Larsen of Rs 13.48 crore.TELCO edged up by Rs 2.25 to Rs 395.25 and ACC by Rs 10.75 at Rs 1032.50. BHEL, HPCL, Hindalco, Hindustan Lever, MTNL, Ranbaxy, Hero Honda, Tata Tea and Britannia also remained better.

Reliance lost by Rs 1.50 to Rs 283 Tata steel and SBI also closed lower at Rs 167 and Rs 300.75 from Rs 167.75 and Rs 301 respectively.On the National Stock Exchange NSE, after a better start, prices declined following withdrawal of support and closed with increased losses. However, the NSE-50 index, opened higher at 1032.50 and rose further to 1035.50. Thereafter, it declined to touch 1024.55 and finished at 1027.00, still showing a marginal gain of 1.30. The Midcap started steady at 1095.05, but rose to 1101.80. Later, it fell to 1092.65, before terminating at 1096.45, revealing an improvement of 1.30. The volume stood at Rs.1029.58 crore.