BOMBAY, 3 October 2004 — On Monday the BSE Sensex closed at 5,511.81. Starting from Oct. 1, shares bought prior to Oct. 1, 2004 would have transaction tax rate of 0.15 percent on delivery-based trades, where the levy will be equally split between the buyer and seller. A rate of 0.015 percent will be levied on sellers in non-delivery based equity transactions and 0.010 percent on sellers of derivatives. The new capital gains regime will apply to all ‘sell’ transactions effective from this date, even if shares were bought prior to Oct. 1, 2004.

Telecom stocks saw selling due to the delay in the FDI policy for the telecom sector. Another telecom pivotal MTNL was replaced from the Sensex by Larsen & Toubro.

On Tuesday the BSE ended at 5,462.61.

Tata Motors was down though the company became the first in the engineering sector to list its securities on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The conversion of GDRs into ADRs has been done in the ratio of 1:1.

On Wednesday, the BSE closed at 5,527.56. The market ignored high oil prices though international oil prices touched $50.

Wipro was up on reports that the company was in the race to acquire California-based IT services and consulting firm, Cymbal, after taking over the global energy practice of software company AMS and NerveWire.

On Thursday, the Sensex closed at 5,584. Gains were also due to short-covering by operators as September contracts expired on Thursday.

Grasim and Hero Honda were among the major gainers.

On Friday, the BSE closed at 5,675.54.

Foreign funds bought a net $89.8 million worth of Indian shares on Thursday as per data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). FIIs total net purchases in September to now stood at $601.2 million and total investment is at $4.89 billion for 2004 so far.

Gold was at Rs.6,330/- per 10 gms and silver was at Rs.10,435/- per kg.

US dollar was at Rs. 45.84, pound sterling at Rs. 81.04, euro at Rs.57.06, UAE dirham at Rs.12.59, Kuwaiti dinar at Rs.154.07, Bahraini dinar at Rs. 121.63, Saudi riyal at Rs. 12.32, Qatari riyal at Rs.12.69 and Omani riyal at Rs.118.51.