Indices in volatile swing

STOCKS REPORT

Volatility left its mark yet again yesterday as investors were on the guard after Thursday's 172-point crash and ahead of a slew of public issues of state-run companies.

Shares swerved in a range of 123 points, but lost only marginally. The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-stock Sensex ended lower by 4.38 points at 5,850.72.

The benchmark index has shed 161 points during this week. The National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty lost 5.65 points to close at 1,852.65.

The Sensex opened weaker but recovered slightly on buying at lower levels. Sustained selling pressure at higher levels pulled it down once again in afternoon trades. Bargain hunting towards the end of the trading session helped it to break even.

Markets players have more or less agreed on one thing "" caution is the buzz word. Talks of liquidity problems in the secondary market on account of a series of public offerings from state-owned companies has put most participants in a circumspect mood.

Says a fund manager, "The markets will be rangebound and reactive till the public issues of state-run firms and elections are out of the way." The breadth of the market was negative with losers outpacing gainers 992:652.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) bought Rs 258.8 crore worth of equities on Thursday. And in this month so far they have poured in Rs 2,972 crore in the equity market.

Cash market turnover at the Bombay Stock Exchange was Rs 3,152.37 crore and at the National Stock Exchange was Rs 6,485.03 crore.

Shares in Reliance Industries were up by 1.32 per cent at Rs 588.95 and those of State Bank of India crawled up by 0.51 per cent to end at Rs 605.8. FMCG major Hindustan Lever's shares were down by 1.48 per cent at Rs 179.35.

Technology pivotals, which piloted the massive fall on Thursday, were subject to intraday volatility but closed marginally down.

The BSE IT index declined by 0.07 per cent today. Satyam Computer was down 0.34 per cent at Rs 311.75, Infosys Technologies was down 0.19 per cent at Rs 5,086.

Hero Honda Motor was up 4.80 per cent at Rs 513.55 and Tata Motors was up 1.57 per cent at Rs 552.55. Bajaj Auto was down 3.56 per cent at Rs 918.25. Reliance Energy was up 3 per cent at Rs 657.30 and BHEL was up 2.53 per cent at Rs 614.75. ICICI Bank was down 4.18 per cent at Rs 297.65 and HDFC Bank was down 2.87 per cent at Rs 363.75.

Bharti Tele-Ventures was down 2.75 per cent at Rs 153.75. IBP was up 3.07 per cent at Rs 716.50, IPCL was up 0.69 per cent at Rs 196.30, CMC was down 5.49 per cent at Rs 541.90.