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Shadow of politics remains; FIs effect moderate recovery, Sensex regains 23 points to 3463.77

The clouds of political uncertainty continue to cast a shadow on the market. The foreign institutional investors preferred to wait and watch. Among the domestic institutional investors, the Unit Trust of India was seen operating both ways.

It bought select shares and sold a few blue chips, dealers said and added that Life Insurance Corporation has reportedly made moderate purchases in select counters.

Reflecting mixed trend, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 3437.07 points, touched the day's high of 3469.44 points, fell below the important mark of 3,400 and touched the day's low of 3381.31 points before closing at 3463.77 points, showing a net gain of 22.58 points as against the previous close of 3441.19 points.

The broad-based BSE-100 index gained higher by 4.68 points to 1515.48 points from the previous close of 1510.80 points.

In the infotech group, Infosys Technologies, Pentafour Software, BSL Software and NIIT gained smartly while in pharma, Nicholas Piramal, Rouhn Poul, Parke Davis rose sharply. In the FMCG sector, Hindustan Lever, Reckit and Colman reported good gains.

The losers included ACC, Reliance, Burroughs Welcome, ITC, Satyam Computers, Glaxo, Digital Equipment, Square D Software, SRG Infotech, Wipro, HCL, Aptech, Ramco and Silverline.

The broad-based BSE-100 index rose by 4.68 points to 1515.48 points from the previous close of 1510.80 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed higher by 0.28 and 0.04 points to 346.99 and 135.29 points from the previous close of 346.71 and 135.25 points respectively.

Most of the operators were busy in squaring up their positions in view of penultimate day of weekly trading cycle on the National Stock Exchange today, dealers said.

Total turnover on the BOLT system reported during the day declined sharply to Rs 13.32 billion compared to Friday's turnover of Rs 15.37 billion.

Pentafour Software topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 3.19 billion, followed by Satyam Computers Rs 2.5 billion and ITC Rs 697.8 million.

Other actively traded counters were Digital Equipment (Rs 411 million), ACC (Rs 354.2 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 341.6 million), Infosys Technologies (Rs 340.6 million), SBI (Rs 315.3 million), Ranbaxy (Rs 302.2 million), Reliance (Rs 301.5 million), Tata Tea (Rs 262.5 million), BHEL (Rs 186.8 million), NIIT (Rs 179.7 million), BPL Limited (Rs 163.1 million) and Hindustan Lever (Rs 152.9 million).

UNI

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