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Settlement opens on a positive note, Nifty up 4.5 points, 821.15

The market opened on a positive note, with prices of pivotals gaining over their previous close at the National Stock Exchange today.

S&P CNX Nifty opened at 820.35, touched the day's high of 826.05, fell to the day's low of 817.35 before closing at 821.15, showing a net gain of 4.50 points from the previous close of 816.65.

CNX Nifty Junior ended higher by 12.75 points at 1389.30, S&P CNX Defty closed at 668.50, up 3.85 points, while S&P CNX 500 and CNX Midcap 200 firmed by 3.37 points and 3.44 points to end at 564.12 and 508.40 respectively.

The total turnover reported on the NSE was Rs 10.47 billion from trading in 56.9 million shares in 181,295 trades and value of debentures traded was Rs 1.95 million.

A total of 610 scrips advanced, 318 declined and 88 were unchanged. And 35 securities hit their price bands today.

ITC topped the turnover list with Rs 1.42 billion followed by Satyam Computers (Rs 1.24 billion), Reliance (Rs 1.14 billion), Pentafour Software (Rs 911.1 million) and SBI (Rs 893.1 million).

Others that recorded a high turnover were Silverline, Zee Telefilms, Telco, HCL-HP, Tisco, Software Solutions Integrated, Castrol and BHEL.

The top gainers were ICICI, Tata Chemicals, Grasim, Cochin Refineries and M&M. Prominent losers today were Indian Hotels, Castrol, Gujarat Ambuja, Telco and ITC.

The foreign institutional investors were net sellers to the tune of 62 million, while domestic institutional investors and mutual funds off-loaded shares of a net amount of Rs 12.3 million.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed increased activity with trades worth Rs 4.08 billion. Government securities maturing in 1999 were actively traded today.

The zero coupon government bond maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 9.21 per cent. The 12 per cent converted government stock maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 440 million at a weighted yield of 10.26 per cent .The 14 per cent IDBI bond maturing in 2005 was traded for Rs 150 million at a yield of 13.96 per cent.

The 91-day treasury bill maturing on January 9, 1999 was traded for Rs 380 million at a weighted yield of 9.05 per cent.

UNI

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