BOMBAY, 14 April — On Monday the BSE closed at 3,480.17. Selling pressure was great with rumors that Ketan Parekh had been arrested again. ITC was a major loser of the day after the government slapped a 20 percent luxury tax on cigarettes. Tata Steel was up marginally on reports that steel producers were considering another price hike of around Rs.500-1,000 per ton, after a increase of Rs.750-1,000 per ton at the beginning of this quarter. Shaw Wallace lost ground following the death of its chairman.

On Tuesday the BSE closed at 3,463.33. The market was clearly waiting for Infosys’ results scheduled for Wednesday.

On Wednesday the BSE closed at 3,479.59. For the quarter ending March 31, 2002, Infosys, India’s second largest software export company, posted a 15.77 percent rise in net profit to Rs.2,103.20 million (Rs.1,816.70 million) on an income of Rs.6,801.30 million (Rs.5618.70 million). It also hiked the investment ceiling for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to 100 percent from 49 percent. Some Old Economy stocks were also up — Telco and Ashok Leyland. Shares of the power utility major BSES shot up to Rs.228.40 following reports that the Reliance group had hiked its equity stake from 31.5 percent to just over 36 percent at the end of December 2001.

On Thursday the BSE closed at 3,497.67. ICICI was in the limelight following the court approval of the swap ratio of the merger with ICICI Bank, paving the way for the creation of the country’s largest private bank. PSI Data Systems saw incessant buying on news that the Aditya Birla group is all set to merge it into Birla Technologies.

Another IT stock attracting attention was Mastek after posting a net profit of Rs.75.2 million for the first quarter.

Wipro saw selling on fears of lower revenue projections for FY 2002-03. ONGC was up on news that it had raised the price of crude oil supplied to local refiners to $21-$22 a barrel from $16 following the hike in global prices.

On Friday the BSE closed at 3,510.90.

Out of a total of 1,592 scrips that changed hands on the exchange, 900 advanced, 558 declined, while 134 remained unchanged. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) reduced weightage for India by 1.6 percent in its emerging markets index.

Tata Infotech was up on hopes that a part of the Rs.5000 million order bagged by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) from GE Medical Systems would flow to the company.

Telco was also up at Rs.136.30 after reporting a 10 percent rise in its sales for March 2002.

Tata Telecom was another gainer at Rs.197.70 on expectations of strong Q4 results.

Pharma stocks such as GlaxoSmithKline, and Burroughs Wellcome were also in the buyers list after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) increased the prices of 12 formulations, including insulin, and fixed for the first time the prices of four formulations. The price hike ranges from 5.13 percent to 19.63 percent.

Gold was at Rs.5,010/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.7,900/- per Kg.

US dollar was at Rs.48.92, pound sterling at Rs.70.31, euro at Rs.43.10, UAE dirham at Rs.13.32, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.159.48, Bahraini dinar at Rs.129.79, Saudi riyal at Rs.13.05, Qatari riyal at Rs.13.44 and Omani riyal at Rs.127.09.