Select buying by the FIIs in the index scrips firmed up the major stock indices yesterday. Hindustan Lever continued to move up at the bourses on aggressive FII buying.
The scrip rose by Rs 70 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to close at Rs 1395. HLL closed with a gain of Rs 68, at Rs 1392 on the NSE. According to dealer at the NSE, share prices of most stocks at both the bourses were running neck and neck.
Though the market witnessed an uptrend in buying interest from FIIs, overall volumes remained low with trading activities remaining limited to key pivotals, said a broker at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
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Wartsila Diesel firmed up by nearly 5.8 per cent at the National Stock Exchange to close at Rs 144.55 over its previous close of Rs 136.60. Nearly 2.25 lakh shares exchanged hands at the counter yesterday.
The 30-scrip BSE Sensex closed yesterday at 3540.91, a gain of 68.56 points over the previous days close of 3472.35 while the NSE-50 was climbed by 18.70 points to close at 1028.40 over its previous days close of 1009.70.
The last few trading sessions have witnessed sharp upward movement of some of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector stocks. According to brokers at the BSE, the uptrend is due to the accumulation of FMCG stocks by FIIs who perceive them to be a safe bet in current market.
Among the other FMCG stocks, P&G closed at Rs 500 (+Rs 17), Ponds moved up to close at Rs 967 (+Rs 42), Reckitt and Coleman gained Rs 5 to close at Rs 389 on the BSE.
Among the other scrips, Hero Honda closed at Rs 848 (+Rs 28) , MTNL gained Rs 7 to close at Rs 250, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd moved up to close at Rs 374 (+Rs7) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd at Rs 336 (+Rs7).