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Pivotals record sharp decline, Nifty down 24 points, 977.30

Pivotals declined sharply on the National Stock Exchange today as low sentiment prevailed due to heavy unloading by bull operators. Good buying support by foreign institutional investors could not halt the decline in share prices.

Reflecting the downtrend, the NSE-50 Index or Nifty fell down by 23.65 points to 977.30 points against 1000.95 points the previous day.

The Dollar NSE-50 Index or Defty also came down by 18.95 points to 796.75 points over its previous day's close of 815.70 points.

The Midcap index slid by 17.60 points to 1461.30 points as compared to 1478.90 points the last working day.

The total turnover, involving 46.10 million shares in 175,030 trades was Rs 12.88 billion and the debenture traded value was Rs 723,000.

About 261 securities advanced, 717 declined while 72 remained unchanged. 42 securities hit their price bands today.

Foreign institutional investors purchased shares worth Rs Rs 525.6 million and sold shares worth Rs 156 million, indicating a net inflow of foreign funds to the tune of Rs 369.6 million in the market. The domestic institutions and mutual funds also invested a net amount of Rs 88 million in the market.

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 3.09 billion, followed by ITC (Rs 2.72 billion), Pentafour Software (Rs 653 million), SBI (Rs 649.7 million), Reliance (Rs 467.8 million, Hindustan Lever (Rs 398.8 million), Tata Tea (Rs 357.4 million), BHEL (Rs 329 million), L&T (Rs 293 million), ACC (Rs 272.3 million), Zee Telefilms (Rs 262.6 million), BFL Software (Rs 226.1 million) and Telco (Rs 206.8 million).

The other counters which witnessed hectic activity were: Dr Reddy's (Rs 201..4 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 157.7 million), Silverline (Rs 143.8 million), BPL (Rs 141.5 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 135 million), MTNL (Rs 124.1 million), Castrol (Rs 119.7 million), HCL-HP (Rs 115.5 million), Tisco (Rs 113 million), Softsolint (Rs 104.9 million), Bajaj Auto (Rs 86.4 million) and Sterlite (Rs 70.3 million).

GE Shipping recorded the highest gain of 2.40 per cent to Rs 29.85, followed by Nestle 1.13 per cent to Rs 450.45, Reliance Capital 1.10 per cent to Rs 54.95, Pond's 0.51 per cent to Rs 1216.55 and HDFC Bank 0.37 per cent to Rs 67.05.

Telco suffered the highest loss of 7.98 per cent to Rs 155.10, followed by BHEL 7.72 per cent to Rs 244.60, MTNL 5.38 per cent to Rs 212.05, L&T 4.82 per cent to Rs 226.25 and Ashok Leyland 4.62 per cent to Rs 34.10.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed increased trading worth Rs 4.67 million. The 14-day treasury bill maturing on August 1, 1998 was traded for Rs 2.17 billion at a weighted yield of 6.50 per cent. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 500 million at a weighted yield of 11.50 per cent. The 16 per cent non-SLR bond of IFCI Limited maturing in 1999 was traded for Rs 250 million at a yield of 12.84 per cent. The turnover in debentures was Rs 413,000.

UNI