BOMBAY, 5 October 2003 — On Monday, the BSE closed at 4,402.55.
There was activity in the five scrips which are to debut on the BSE Sensex from Nov. 10. MTNL was up on news of the hike in foreign investment limit in Indian telecom companies to 74 percent from the present overall cap of 49 percent.
On Tuesday, the BSE closed at 4,453 on the back of strong data on the Indian economy released by the government. India’s GDP surged 5.7 percent in the first quarter of the current year (April-June), up from 4.9 percent in the previous quarter. There was all round buying by operators and mutual funds, both in Old as well as New economy stocks. Zee Telefilms was a major gainer of the day on reports that the company is considering divesting its loss-making businesses, E-Connect and Zee Interactive Learning Systems. It has decided to write off losses of the two businesses amounting to Rs.612 million. Tata Power was also up on market buzz that the company is likely to restructure its investment portfolio worth Rs.20.00 billion. Shares of leading banks rose sharply on hopes that the RBI may cut repo rates further. This is due to a sharp fall in the 10-year bond yields, which now hover around 5.1 percent.
On Wednesday, the BSE ended the day at 4,455.08. Reliance Industries was a major gainer of the day. The company is going all out to convince institutional investors about the merits of its telecom venture. The company has estimated a revenue of close to Rs.2.00 billion per month if one assumes a subscriber base of 4 million. Bajaj Auto , Hero Honda and Tata Motors were up amid hopes of an improved sales performance for the month of September. TVS Motors remained more or less stagnant despite having reported a 4.9 percent year-on-year drop in September motorcycle sales as this was more or less in line with market expectations. Aluminum major Hindalco was also up on news that the company has increased product prices by Rs.2,000 per ton.
On Friday, the BSE was bullish and closed at a 37-month high at 4,552.90. The moods were running high on account of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment which is scheduled to meet soon to remove the glitches around the disinvesment of HPCL and BPCL.
Gold was at Rs.5,780/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.8,320/- per Kg. US dollar was at Rs.45.66, pound sterling at Rs.75.73, euro at Rs.52.40, UAE dirham at Rs.12.43, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.154.78, Bahraini dinar at Rs.121.14, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.18, Qatari riyal at Rs.12.55 and Omani riyal at Rs.118.62.