BOMBAY, 16 June — On Monday the BSE closed at 3,279.49. The mood was more relaxed as war fears have receded.
In specific stocks, Tata Iron & Steel was up after it hiked its product prices by Rs. 800 per ton earlier this month.
Hexaware was frozen at 20 percent upper limit. VSNL was up. Hinduja group companies such as Hinduja TMT, IndusInd Bank and Ashok Leyland firmed up after the Delhi High Court dismissed charges against the Hinduja brothers in the Bofors bribery case.
On Tuesday the BSE closed at 3,362.42. The ‘stock of the day’ was Zee Telefilms after the Reserve Bank of India approved the hike in the ceiling on stake ownership by foreign funds in the media major to 49 percent. Private sector auto major, Telco was up after it reported a 12 percent year-on-year rise in its May 2002 sales. Pharma company, Ipca saw buying after it announced for Q4 a 327.45 percent rise in net profit. Steel stocks were up on the report that hot rolled coils were in short-supply as several downstream cold rolled steel makers had temporarily stopped operations because of raw material shortage.
On Wednesday the BSE closed at 3,344.41. Heavyweight stocks such as Reliance Industries, ITC and Reliance Petroleum accounted for the fall. The Tata group tech major, CMC for Q4 posted a 26 percent drop in net profit and was thus on all investors’ selling list. Dabur India was also down after it posted a 66.79 percent fall in net profit for Q4. Punjab Communication was frozen on the upper limit on reports that the Punjab state government may offload its stake in the company.
On Thursday the BSE closed at 3,311.16. While PSU, pharma and select Old Economy stocks lost ground, heavyweight stocks contributed significantly to the fall of the Sensex. FMCG heavyweight Hindustan Lever was down on news that its sales had declined by 3 percent in April 2002. At the same time, Colgate Palmolive rose on value buying. Sri Adhikari Brothers moved up.
PSU Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore hit the 20 percent upper limit on divestment hopes. Motherson Sumi was back on the buying list when for Q4 the auto ancillary major posted a 103.91 percent rise in net profit.
On Friday, the BSE closed at 3,312.07. Of the 1,833 issues traded on the BSE, advances outnumbered declines, with 1,122 gainers and 597 losers. 114 issues remained unchanged. The ‘good news’ was India’s foreign exchange reserves rising to $56.320 billion in the week ending June 7, 2002 from $56.148 billion at the end of the previous week. Tata stocks were in the limelight with Telco and Tisco, both posting gains. Steel stocks continued in the news and even the second-line and third-line steel scrips surged on the back of a rally on the Tisco counter. Analysts expect a turnaround in the Indian steel sector within the next six to seven months. PSU stocks continued to attract attention. Among other newsmakers, Century Textiles rose on talks that the Birla group was close to finalizing a deal to spin off its shipping division.
Gold was at Rs. 5,230/- per 10 gms and Silver was at Rs. 8,275/- per kg.
US$ was at Rs. 48.93, Pound Sterling at Rs. 72.29, Euro at Rs. 46.28, UAE Dirhams at Rs. 13.32, Kuwaiti Dinar at Rs. 160.64, Bahraini Dinar at Rs. 129.78, Saudi Riyal at Rs. 13.07, Qatari Riyal at Rs. 13.44 and Omani Riyal at Rs. 127.09.