Despite the sluggish trend witnessed in south-east Asia, the domestic markets ruled relatively firm last week. In fact, foreign funds remained net buyers at the local bourses on two days underscoring their renewed faith in the local markets.
After a long gap, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex breached the 3000-mark on Monday and, thereafter, it continued to register modest gains over the next four days. Good buying witnessed at the HLL counter prevented a fall in the indices. During intra-day trading the stock hit the high of Rs 1705 at the BSE.
While commodity and refinery stocks were back in demand, software scrips seems to have temporarily lost flavour. The reason for this, as indicated by equity analysts, is the sharp fall in prices of software companies listed at the Nasdaq. This has made valuation of Indian software stocks over-stretched. As a result, some top-line software scrips including Infosys Technologies, NIIT, Pentafour among others have been off-loaded by fund managers.
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With Crisil deciding to downgrade the long-term rating of Telco and Ashok Leyland, both scrips were badly hammered at the bourses. Domestic institutions have made use of the good going and dumped stocks on most days.
Fund managers feel that domestic markets look safe when compared with some of the emerging bourses. "Thus from the medium- to long-term view, investment in the domestic market looks safe," commented a fund manager.
New Delhi: Bullish conditions gained strength on the Delhi Stock Exchange last week with the benchmark index rising by over 19 points following an upsurge in heavy-weighted stocks on sustained buying by foreign funds and domestic financial institutions.
Brokers said stability on the political front and firming global markets also buoyed sentiment.
Reports that funds raised through Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) by the State Bank of India would be invested in core sector projects also triggered buying interest in infrastructure sector shares, they said. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha's statement that the rupee would not be devalued was another reason behind the bull run.
However, towards the fag-end of the week, a plunge in the Wall Street and the threat of impeachment proceedings facing US President Bill Clinton, led to US-based funds turning nervous and playing safe by reducing their positions.
The DSE index after opening sharply higher at 683.41 points crossed 700 points to touch 704 (intra session) on Thursday before profit-selling pruned earlier gains and the index settled at 691.12 points, still showing a gain of 19.42 points.
Calcutta: Share prices consolidating recent gains on the Calcutta Stock Exchange with most scrips finishing well above their previous levels. The turnover was substantially higher as both investors and speculators preferred to hold their issues on optimism following encouraging developments in national politics and global stock markets.
Interest was fairly broad-based with a majority of shares recording gains. Higher upcountry advices led the sentiment, inducing local operators to enter into new commitments.
National political developments, the nomination of Y Primakov as Prime Minister by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and encouraging support on the part of foreign investor institutions were also responsible for the week's rally.
The CSE's 40-share index rose by 79.61 points to close at 1713.75 points against the previous week's close of 1634.14 points.
Tobacco giant ITC emerged in the limelight due to the favourable order of the Customs Excise and Gold Appellate Tribunal for the industry and the scrip closed at Rs 670.30 against Rs 657.60 last week.
Chennai: Equities improved on the Madras Stock Exchange last week due to fresh activity and buying support and closed with moderate to modest gains. After a firm start, prices strengthened further on speculative-cum-buying support. Encouraging upcountry advices also boosted sentiment. However, many counters drifted and lost earlier gains towards the weekend following nervous selling and profit taking.
ITC, Reliance, State Bank of India, Satyam Computers, Silverline and DSQ Software were actively traded. The MSE index, which closed 41.26 points higher on Monday at 3406.27, moved up further to 3445.58 before declining to close at 3417.98 as against the previous week's level of 3365.01, netting a gain of 52.97 points.