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No high, sigh, IT's Samvat 2055! Brokers keep off moorat, Sensex 2853.27

Pivotals rose marginally during moorat trading, the special trading session conducted on the Bombay Stock Exchange on the eve of first day of Vikram Samvat 2055 on Monday.

According to market sources, the foreign institutional investors did not participate actively while the domestic institutional investors picked up small quantity of blue chips.

Infotech shares like Satyam Computers, Infosys Technologies and NIIT were in demand, and brokers were busy conducting deals in these shares.

Trading on the BSE's on-line trading system started 15 minutes late due to some problems in the system.

BSE executive director R C Mathur said due to the delay in opening, trading timing was extended by 15 minutes.

There was very thin attendance at the 28-storey building which houses the country's premier bourse, as a majority of the brokers preferred to enjoy Diwali holiday in view of lacklustre market conditions.

Raman Parikh, a leading BSE broker said, "There is no business like in the past, so I have preferred to stay at home."

The government should do something to improve market conditions, they should at least bring the buyback as early as possible to bring some life in the dead market," commented another broker.

Reflecting the market mood, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index or the Sensex opened at 2860.94 points, touched the day's high of 2871.71 points, fell to the day's low of 2848.11, before closing at 2853.27 points, showing a net gain of 5.16 points over the previous close of 2848.11 points.

The broad-basee BSE-100 index advanced by 2.78 points to 1272.31 points, from the previous close of 1269.53 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices rose by 2.78 and 0.60 points to 297.19 and 117.00 points from the previous close of 295.66 and 116.40 points respectively.

In the olden days, the brokers use to enter moorat deals in their new books for the new year on the first day of Samvat year. However, since all the institutional brokers and the individuals have left the old system and are adhering to the new system according to the government order, the moorat deals have become just a tradition, pointed a leading BSE broker.

The total turnover on the screen-based BOLT system stood at Rs 2.13 billion.

Out of 7,189 listed scrips, 1,276 were traded in the 31,191 deals executed during the one-hour trading, a BSE release said.

Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 441.7 million, followed by ITC Rs 403.5 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 145 million, Reliance Rs 116.5 million and SBI Rs 116.1 million.

Other actively traded scrips were Pentafour Software (Rs 99.1 million), Telco (Rs 86.3 million), BHEL (Rs 53.1 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 52.3 million), MTNL (Rs 51.5 million), Castrol India (Rs 440 million), Tata Tea (Rs 41.9 million), Raymond Wool (Rs 24.1 million), Infosys Technlogies (Rs 23.6 million) and ACC (Rs 21.9 million).

Among the issues, Asian Hotels advanced by Rs 3 to Rs 140, Asian Paints by Rs 2.20 to Rs 275, Bajaj Auto by Rs 9 to Rs 592, BHEL Rs 6.40 to Rs 232.50, Castrol Rs 4 to Rs 611, Dr Reddy's Rs 0.75 to Rs 469.25, Glaxo Rs 3 to Rs 465, Grasim Rs 2.50 to Rs 140, Hero Honda Rs 20.25 to Rs 602.25, Hindustan Lever Rs 2 to Rs 1710, M&M Rs 4.90 to Rs 159.10, NIIT Rs 4.50 to Rs 1232.50, Ranbaxy Rs 7.75 to Rs 576, SBI Rs 0.60 to Rs 157.60.

Among the losers, Hindalco dropped by Rs 10.75 to Rs 529, India Hotels by Rs 2 to Rs 395, ITC Rs 3.25 to Rs 689.75, L&T Rs 1.70 to Rs 149.80, MTNL Rs 5 to Rs 189, Pentafour Software Rs 3 to Rs 643, Satyam Computers Rs 5 to Rs 551, Tata Tea Rs 3.50 to Rs 259.50 and Zee Telefilms Rs 0.50 to Rs 604.

UNI

Pivotals decline in moorat session at NSE