BOMBAY, 5 January 2003 — On Monday, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed at 3,374.97. The delay in the PSU disinvestment decision dampened the moods. Profit-taking in pharma and other Old Economy stocks also contributed to the decline. And the surge in global crude oil prices did not help. The two biggest losers of the day were HPCL and BPCL. The state owned telecom giant MTNL also plunged down following the entry of Reliance Infocomm into the telecom sector. L&T was also up. Fertilizer stocks such as Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT), Madras Fertilizers and National Fertilizer surged.

On Tuesday the BSE closed at 3,377.28. Reliance Industries was in the limelight. Infosys Technologies was up on speculative buying. The company is to unveil its third quarter (Q3) results on Jan. 10. In banking stocks, Centurion Bank was very active following market gossip that Kotak Mahindra Finance (KMFL) was active on the counter, planning a move to acquire an equity stake in the bank.

On Wednesday, the BSE closed 3,390.12. Pharma and IT stocks were up while banking and cement shares were down. PSU oil refinery stocks HPCL and BPCL surged on market rumors that the government does not need parliament’s approval to sell its stakes in HPCL and BPCL. Select IT shares such as Wipro, Infosys and Satyam Computers were firm. Bajaj Auto was up on reports of its bike sales rising by 10.6 percent during the month. On the other hand, Hero Honda plunged when its sales too were below the market expectations, up by just 1 percent during the month.

On Thursday, the markets were volatile and the BSE closed at 3,365.06. Marketmen said that though the market lost points, the undertone was bullish. MTNL continued to lose ground on fears of the ongoing undercutting in the telecom business by cellular service providers.

On Friday, selling pressure from hedge funds led to a BSE close at 3,357.54. Of the 1,764 issues traded on the exchange, declines outnumbered advances, with 849 losers and 731 gainers. 184 issues ended unchanged.

Gold was at Rs.5,620/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.8,055/- per Kg.

US dollar was at Rs.48.01, pound sterling at Rs.77.35, euro at Rs.50.09, UAE dirham at Rs.13.07, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.160.13, Bahraini dinar at Rs.127.33, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.80, Qatari riyal at Rs.13.19 and Omani riyal at Rs.124.68.