Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares

worth a net Rs 247.30 crore on last Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Globally, barring Hang Seng, which eased by 0.27 per cent, other indices closed up with yen's downtrend boosting Japanese stocks. Indices in Japan, Shanghai, Singpaore, Korea and Taiwan ended higher by 0.04-2.05 per cent today. However, Europe showed a mixed trend. Benchmark indices in France and London eased by 0.02 per cent to 0.35 per cent while Germany's DAX was last quoting 0.18 per cent up. Turning the Indian market, 17 scrips out of the 30- share Sensex firmed up while 13 finished with losses. Major gainers from the Sensex pack were Tata Steel (2.49 pc), HUL (1.89 pc), Sterlite (1.76 pc), L&T (1.57 pc), HDFC (1.47 pc), BHEL (1.22 pc), Hero Motocorp (1.20 pc), SBI (1.29 pc) Hindalco (1.18 pc) and Wipro (0.81 pc). However, Jindal Steel dropped by 1.81 per cent, followed by Coal India (1.77 pc), ONGC (1.35 pc), Dr Reddy's (1.24 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.17 pc) and TCS (1.12 pc). The market breadth turned positive as 1,245 scrips ended higher, 860 stocks declined while 874 ruled steady. Total turnover dropped further to Rs 1,607.73 crore from last Friday's level of Rs 1,825.03 crore.