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Satyam's sterling show fails to enthuse politics-hit market; Sensex steady at 3464.52 points

Pivotals moved in a narrow range at the Bombay Stock Exchange following lack of buying interest from foreign institutional investors and domestic institutional investors today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened at 3445.84 points, touched the day's high of 3485.74 points, a low of 3437.55 points, before closing at 3464.52 points, showing a marginal gain of 0.75 points against the previous close of 3463.77 points.

Generally, the political uncertainty at the Centre has prevented the market players from taking long-term positions in blue chip companies, dealers said. The market is likely to remain dormant till the political uncertainty blows over.

Barring a few scrips like NIIT from the infotech group, Glaxo, German Remedies, Rouhn Poul, IPCA in the pharma sector and Hindustan Lever, P&G in the FMCG sector, other shares posted marginal gains on some buying support from speculators. The FIIs reportedly picked up small quantity of Castrol shares.

The market which was supposed to witness a short rally on the announcement of Satyam Computers 1:1 bonus and an impressive net profit of Rs 730 million for the year ended March 31, 1999, actually pulled down the share prices substantially, soon after the annoucement.

The broad-based BSE-100 index drifted lower by 7.12 points to 1508.36 points from the previous close of 1515.48 points.

The BSE-200 and Dollex indices closed lower by 2.00 and 0.81 points to 344.99 and 134.48 points from the previous close of 346.99 and 135.29 points respectively.

Today, being the last day at the National Stock Exchange most of the big players were busy in squaring up their positions.

The major losers during the day were ACC, Reliance, ITC, Satyam, Pentafour Software, PSI Data, Aptech, Silverline, HCL HP. The BSE will remain closed tomorrow on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.

Total turnover on the BOLT system stood at Rs 14.43 billion. Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering the highest turnover of Rs 3.89 billion, followed by Pentafour Software Rs 2.82 billion, ITC Rs 602.3 million and Digital Equipment Rs 602 million.

Other actively traded counters were Ranbaxy Laboratories Rs 477.7 million, Infosys Technologies Rs 358.9 million, Reliance Rs 328.7 million, Zee Telefilms Rs 299.1 million, Tata Tea Rs 278.9 million, ACC Rs 228.5 million, BHEL Rs 205.9 million, NIIT Rs 195 million, SBI Rs 179.9 million, MTNL Rs 173.3 million and Hindustan Lever Rs 170.6 million.

UNI

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