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Mixed trend keeps market down; Nifty slips seven points, 927.90

Pivotals opened on a steady note and displayed a mixed trend towards close on the National Stock Exchange today.

Mirroring the mixed trend, the S&P CNX Nifty index declined by 7.05 points to 927.90 points from 934.95 points of last Friday.

The S&P CNX Defty index also moved down by 6.05 points to 756.25 points from 762.30 points while S&P CNX 500 index edged down by 1.40 point to 634.64 points from 636.04 points.

However, the CNX Nifty Junior index rose by 11.35 points to 1557.80 points from 1546.45 points of Friday and CNX Midcap 200 index improved by 2.74 points to 557.85 points from 555.11 points.

The total turnover in 208,078 trades involving 59.84 million shares was Rs 19.19 billion and the debentures traded value was Rs 8.26 million. About 398 scrips advanced, 574 declined and 79 remained unchanged. About 55 securities hit their price bands today.

Foreign institutional investors today purchased shares worth Rs 373.81 million against their lower sales of 209.27 million, showing an inflow of foreign exchange to the tune of Rs 164.53 million.

Satyam Computers registered the highest turnover of Rs 3.59 billion, followed by ITC (Rs 3.54 billion), Zee Telefilms (Rs 2.32 billion), Pentafour Software (Rs 1.86 billion), SBI News (Rs 961.3 million), Reliance (Rs 714.6 million), Castrol (Rs 584.8 million), MTNL (Rs 389 million), Tata Tea (Rs 383.7 million), HCL-HP (Rs 347.3 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 343.9 million), BHEL (Rs 326.9 million) and NIIT (Rs 242.3 million).

The other actively traded counters were ACC (Rs 277 million), Digital Equipment (Rs 206 million), L&T (Rs 187.2 million), Infosys Tech (Rs 171.9 million), Glaxo (Rs 137.9 million), Square D Software (Rs 134.1 million), Sterlite (Rs 133.4 million), Silverline (Rs 111.9 million), Software Solutions International (Rs 99.8 million), BFL Software (Rs 88.3 million), BPL (Rs 84.6 million) and Rolta (Rs 73.3 million).

East India Hotels recorded the highest gain with 4.79 per cent increase, followed by Indo-Gulf 4.75 per cent, HDFC 3.56 per cent, Glaxo 3.08 per cent and Castrol 2.46 per cent.

ICICI topped the losers list with 4.68 per cent loss, followed by HDFC Bank 4.16 per cent, Indian Rayon 3.72 per cent, Ashok Leyland 3.55 per cent and Cochin Refineries 3.29 per cent.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed trades worth Rs 1.39 billion. The zero coupon government bond maturing in 2000 (Series III) was traded for Rs 350 million at a weighted yield of 11.36 per cent. The 11 per cent government loan maturing in 2002 was traded for Rs 100 million at a weighted yield of 11.69 per cent. Certificate of deposit of IFCI Limited maturing on October 3, 1998 was traded for Rs 110 million at a yield of nine per cent. A repo trade worth Rs 180 million was transacted at a repo rate of 9.10 per cent for 11 days.

UNI