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Speculation aids recovery; pivotals spurt; Nifty up 15 points, 875.05

Pivotals firmed up smartly at the National Stock Exchange following speculative buying support on the first day of weekly settlement today.

Reflecting the bullish trend, the S&P CNX Nifty Index opened at 862.90 points, touched the day's high of 876.15 points, fell to the day's low of 862.90 before closing at 875.05 points, showing a net gain of 15.05 points over the previous close of 860.

CNX Nifty Junior advanced by 27.80 points to 1467.15 points from Tuesday's close of 1439.35 points. S&P CNX Defty ended at 714, showing an increase of 11.95 points as against the previous close of 702.05.

S&P CNX-500 and CNX Midcap-200 gained by 10.64 and 9.52 points to 597.14 and 532.06 points as against the previous close of 586.50 and 522.54 points respectively.

The exchange witnessed 740 scrips advance, 239 declining and 94 remaining unchanged. About 65 securities hit their prices bands today.

Total turnover on the NSE reported during the day was Rs 11.93 billion from trading in 61.06 million shares in 193,405 trades. Debentures traded value was Rs 8.88 million.

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 2.07 billion, followed by SBI Rs 986.7 million, Pentafour Software (Rs 952.9 million), ITC Rs 853.8 million and Telco Rs 824.3 million.

Other actively traded counters were Reliance (Rs 794.7 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 554.6 million), Castrol (Rs 467.9 million), HCL-HP (Rs 341.7 million), Tisco (Rs 341.2 million), ACC (Rs 189.9 million), Square D Software (Rs 157.8 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 153.7 million), Tata Tea (Rs 145.5 million), BHEL (Rs 135.5 million), Mastek (Rs 123.4 million), Ranbaxy (Rs 120.1 million), L&T (Rs 113.1 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 111.9 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 110.8 million), Hindustan Lever (Rs 109.1 million), LML (Rs 104.9 million), Sterlite (Rs 102.5 million) and Silverline (Rs 96.8 million).

Among the gainers, GE Shipping closed at Rs 24.70 (Rs 22.85), Tata Chemicals Rs 93.85 (Rs 86.90), HDFC Rs 23.50 (Rs 22.10), Arvind Mill Rs 34.20 (Rs 32.55) and BHEL Rs 268.10 (Rs 255.70). The losers included Glaxo which closed at Rs 558.00 (Rs 563.25), Smithkline Beecham Rs 487 (Rs 489.70), Telco Rs 146 (Rs 146.70), Hero Honda Rs 565 (Rs 567.40) and Nestle Rs 423 (Rs 424.35).

The FIIs and domestic institutional investors and mutual funds were net sellers and reported sales worth Rs 100.8 million and Rs 37.7 million respectively.

The wholesale debt market of the NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 3.95 billion. The 11.64 per cent government loan maturing in 2000 was traded for Rs 450 million at a weighted yield of 11.33 per cent. The 364-day treasury bill maturing on August 27, 1999 was traded for Rs 300 million at a weighted yield of 10.33 per cent. Commercial paper of L&T Limited maturing on February 3, 1999 was traded for Rs 150 million at a yield of 10.77 per cent.

Repo trades worth Rs 700 million were traded for repo terms of 14 days at rates varying between nine per cent and 9.15 per cent.

UNI

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