BOMBAY, 28 December 2003 — On Monday the BSE closed at 5,577.96. Power stocks such as Reliance Energy and Tata Power climbed up on hope of action in the power sector in the months to come. HPCL was down after it declared a 60 percent interim dividend for FY 2003-04 as against market expectations of around 150-200 percent.
On Tuesday, the Sensex ended at 5,564.
Pharma major, Ranbaxy Laboratories was among the biggest losers. There were reports that UK’s National Health Service has sued Ranbaxy and six other pharma companies for artificially raising the price of an antibiotic by 260 percent.
On Wednesday, the BSE closed at 5,641.92.
Bharti Televentures was one of the biggest gainers of the day after the Government hiked foreign investment limits in telecom companies from 49 percent to 74 percent. The telecom minister also announced an across-the-board 2 percent cut in the revenue share for cellular companies, effective April 1, 2004. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam will gain Rs.5.60 billion, MTNL will save Rs.1.00 billion and private operators Rs.2.25 billion. Bio-tech scrips saw a lot of activity. Fund managers have been buying stocks in this sector in anticipation of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals.
The markets were closed on Thursday.
On Friday the BSE closed at 5,699.24. One of the big gainers of the day was Tata Iron and Steel Co. Canara Bank remained steady on selective buying after the bank’s board declared an interim dividend of 25 percent. Oriental Bank of Commerce also gained on expectation of an interim dividend. Indian Oil Corporation was trading steady after the company announced an interim dividend of 50 percent for FY2002-03 Maruti was up.
Gold was at Rs.6,125/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.9,235/- per Kg.
US dollar was at Rs.45.72, pound sterling at Rs.80.21, euro at Rs. 56.77, UAE dirham at Rs.12.41, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.154.70, Bahraini dinar at Rs.120.88, Saudi riyal at Rs.12.13, Qatari riyal at Rs.12.52 and Omani riyal at Rs.118.37.