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NSE drops further

Share prices declined further in the National Stock Exchange on the last day of settlement following continuous selling pressure from foreign institutional investors and bull operators.

The NSE-50 index opened at 916.25 and touched the day's low of 862.15 points before closing at 910.10 points, suffering a loss of 6.70 points as compared to the previous close of 916.80 points.

The dollar NSE-50 (defty) index finished at 745.90 points over the last trading day's close of 752.10 points, losing 6.20 points.

The midcap closed at 1,244.20 points as against Monday's close of 1,267.60 points, decreasing by 23.40 points.

The total turnover on the exchange was Rs 11.97 billion, from 6427.8 million shares in 183,115 trades. The debenture traded value was Rs 245.8 million.

About 90 securities hit their price brands. One hundred and ninetyfour scrips advanced, 793 declined and 76 remained unchanged in the exchange.

The top five gainers were Rel Petro which rose to Rs 20 from Rs 19.05,Hind Lever to Rs 1,536.15 from Rs 1,486.15, Ashok Leyland to Rs 37.80 from Rs 36.95, ITC to Rs 613.20 from Rs 604.75 and Tata Power to Rs 85.55 from Rs 84.40.

Among the losers, ICICI declined to Rs 70.30 from Rs 77.15, Thermax to Rs 132.15 from Rs 143.45, HDFC to Rs 2,343.15 from Rs 2,740.70, MRPL to Rs 15.55 from Rs 16.50 and Gujarat Amb Cement to Rs 265.35 from Rs 281.15.

The ITC registered the highest volume of Rs 4.32 billion followed by RIL (Rs 1.09 billion), SBIM (Rs 788.4 million), Satyam Comp (Rs 770.8 million), Hind Lever (Rs 392.8 million), Telco (Rs 360.3 million), Tata Tea (Rs 319.3 million), Tisco (Rs 293.6 million), L and T (Rs 285.1 million), Infosystch (Rs 256.6 million), Castrol (Rs 223.8 million), Sqrdsfware (Rs 181.8 million), MTNL (Rs 175.3 million), ACC (Rs 163.8 million), BFL Softwar (Rs 148.6 million), Wipro (Rs 148.6 million), ICICI (Rs 137.5 million, BHEL (Rs 96.6 million), Rel Petro (Rs 88.5 million), NIIT (Rs 71.9 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 58.7 million), Corp Bank (Rs 55.8 million), Bank of Baroda (Rs 55.1 million), Aptech (Rs 53.7 million) and BSES (Rs 48.3 million).

The wholesale debt market of the exchange witnessed trading worth Rs 2.83 billion.

The 13.65 per cent government loan maturing in 1998 was traded for Rs 570 million at a weighted yield of 8.85 per cent.

The 13.75 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded at a weighted yield of 11.4 per cent for Rs 300 million.

The 14-day treasury bill maturing on June 20 this year was traded for Rs 200 million at a weighted yield of 5.25 per cent.

Commercial papers of Reliance and Telco maturing next month was traded at 9 per cent for Rs 50 million each, while Bombay Dyeing CP maturing on July 8, 1998 was traded for Rs 50 million at 8.7 per cent.

UNI