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FII selling pressure keeps Nifty down; 833.85

Equities declined further on the National Stock Exchange due to heavy selling pressure from foreign institutional investors, domestic institutional investors and speculators at the first day of current settlement today.

Mirroring the bearish phase, the S&P CNX Nifty Index opened at 842.80 points, touched the day's high of 857.75, fell to the day's low of 831.55 points before closing at 833.85 points, showing a net loss of 7.75 points over the previous close of 841.60 points. The CNX Nifty Junior down by 13.60 points at 1442.35 from the previous close of 1455.95 points. S&P CNX Defty and S&P CN-500 ended lower by 6.55 and 7.48 points to 683.60 and 576.60 points from the previous close of 690.15 and 584.08 points respectively.

The CNX Midcap 200 down by 4.70 points at 516.81 points from the previous close of 521.51 points.

The total turnover stood at Rs 15.37 billion from 59.07 million shares in 196,958 trades. The debentures traded value was Rs 3.80 million.

The exchange witnessed 436 scrips advance with 542 declines and 90 scrips remained unchanged. About 60 securities had hit their price bands today, a NSE release said.

The most actively traded scrips were ITC with a turnover of Rs 3.42 billion, Satyam Computers Rs 3.02 billion, SBI Rs 921.9 million, Pentafour Software Rs 914.1 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 811.5 million and Reliance Rs 766 million.

Other actively traded scrips were Tata Tea (Rs 585.8 million), Castrol (Rs 460.1 million), Telco (Rs 406.9 million), MTNL (Rs 389.5 million), HCL-HP (Rs 290.2 million), ACC (Rs 270.2 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 228.5 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 217.6 million), L&T (Rs 212 million), Tisco (Rs 157.7 million), Software Solutions (Rs 128.8 million), Sterlite (Rs 104.4 million), Glaxo (Rs 103.1 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 94.4 million), Infosys Technology (Rs 88.7 million), ICICI (Rs 86.4 million), BFl Software (Rs 83.2 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 77.4 million) and Rolta (Rs 75.5 million).

The top S&P CNX Nifty gainers were Glaxo Rs 485.95 (Rs 464.55), Tata Tea Rs 293.05 (Rs 282.35), TVS Suzuki Rs 605.70 (Rs 586), Cipla Rs 939.60 (Rs 912) and Hindalco Rs 514.40 (Rs 509.40).

The major losers were Bank of India Rs 22.10 (Rs 24), Grasim Rs 144.20 (Rs 150.85), BSES Rs 150.10 (Rs 156.30), Telco Rs 110.40 (Rs 114.80) and ABB Rs 486.60 (Rs 505.45).

Meanwhile, the wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 2.02 billion. The zero coupon government bond maturing in 1999 was actively traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 10.20 per cent. The 91-day treasury bill maturing on January 23, 1998 was traded for Rs 200 million at a weighted yield of 10.05 respectively.

Commercial paper of BPL Limited maturing on December 28, 1998 was traded for Rs 5 crore at a yield of 11.04 per cent.

UNI