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Downtrend continues; Nifty down 18 points, 834.55

The overall dip in the financial markets worldwide cast its shadow on the National Stock Exchange as the markets opened and finished at a level lower than their previous close today.

The market moved in a narrow range throughout the day; the S&P CNX Nifty Index opened at 852.75 points and closed lower at 834.55 points, without moving above its opening level and touching a low of 832.05 points to a record loss of 18.25 points over its previous close of 852.80 points.

CNX Nifty Junior recorded a whopping loss of 39.10 points when it closed at 1444.55 points after opening at 1483.50 points, as compared to its previous close of 1483.65 points.

The Nifty also did not move higher than its opening and recorded a low of 1442.25 points during the intra-day trading.

The S&P CNX Defty and CNX 500 also lost by 14.60 and 14.71 points to close at 679.95 and 574.82 points respectively. CNX Midcap 200 also lost moderately by 15.62 points as compared to its previous close of 521.48 points to close at 521.37 points.

The total traded value was Rs 13.93 billion involving 200,068 shares and a traded quantity of 58.74 million. The debenture traded value was Rs 1.9 million. There were 265 advances, 715 declines and 81 unchanged movements with 40 securities hitting their price bands.

The top gainers were Asian Paints, ABB and IPCL and the top losers were BPCL, Ashok Leyland, Hindalco, BSES and Colgate.

ITC recorded highest turnover of Rs 3.76 billion followed by Satyam Computers Rs 1.99 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.18 billion, Pentafour Software Rs 965.2 million, Reliance Rs 751.2 million, SBI Rs 527.2 million, Silverline Rs 332.3 million, Tata Tea Rs 278 million, Hindustan Lever Rs 234.7 million, MTNL Rs 231.7 million, BFL Software Rs 224.4 million, ACC Rs 219.8 million, Dr Reddy's Rs 211.8 million, Infosys Tech Rs 201.3 million, Castrol Rs 178.2 million, Rolta Rs 177.5 million, L&T Rs 163 million, HCL-HP Rs 162.5 million, BHEL Rs 126.6 million, NIIT Rs 97.2 million, Telco Rs 90.4 million, Tisco Rs 84 million, Software Solutions Rs 68 million, BPL Rs 65.3 million and Videocon International Rs 62.2 million.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 1.77 billion. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded at Rs 450 million at a weighted yield of 11.47 per cent. The 12.15 per cent government loan maturing in 2008 was traded for Rs 170 million at a yield of 12.16 per cent.

The zero coupon government bond maturing in 2000 (Series III) was traded for Rs 100 million at a yield of 10.99 per cent. Two repo trades totalling Rs 350 million were transacted at a repo rate of 9.75 per cent and ten per cent for 11 days and ten days respectively.

UNI