Reliance focus of institutional buying

DALAL STREET SPIKES

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was in the limelight on Friday, witnessing strong gains backed by strong institutional buying.

The stock, in intra-day trades, touched a high of Rs 510.25 before closing at Rs 509.25, up 3.72 per cent from its previous close.

According to a BSE broker, there is strong institutional buying and a stock like Reliance, which had not participated in the current rally, has now started attracting buying. The Reliance counter in Friday's trading witnessed a volume of 37.3 lakh shares on the BSE.

Even other heavyweights including Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), ONGC and ITC witnessed smart gains. The ITC stock was up 2.79 per cent to Rs 1,174.10, ONGC up 2.23 per cent to Rs 746.40 and HLL ended 1.62 per cent higher at Rs 125.75 on renewed buying.

Tata Power was up 3.06 per cent to Rs 302.65 and Reliance Energy was up 0.33 per cent to Rs 634. Both these counters were active after the Bombay High Court advised the power majors to explore possibilities of an out-of-court settlement on their dispute over sharing of payment of standby charges.