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Nifty drops, Midcap rises

Pivotals moved in an alternative bouts of buying selling in a mixed trading on the National Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The NSE-50 Index opened at 1175.55 points, touched the day's high of 1184.90, declined to the day's low of 1168.30 and later finished at 1169.85 points, showing a net loss of 5.10 points over the previous close of 1174.95 points. However, the Midcap Index gained moderately by 10.25 points to 1304.05 points over the previous close of 1293.80 points.

The total turnover on NSE reduced to Rs 16 billion as against Tuesday's turnover of Rs 24.5 billion.

The tobacco giant ITC stood first in the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 4.9 billion, followed by Reliance Rs 4.8 billion, SBI Rs 1.5 billion, Tata Tea Rs 1.2 billion, and MTNL Rs 409.5 million.

Hectic activity was also observed at the other counters like ACC Rs 345.5 million, TISCO Rs 337.3 million, TELCO Rs 303.5 million, Castrol Rs 185.6 million, Bajaj Auto Rs 182.5 million, ICICI Rs 110.5 million, L&T Rs 99.6 million, Hind Lever Rs 99.4 million, Colgate Rs 94.3 million, ICICI Bank Rs 66.1 million, Rel Cap Rs 53.4 million, BHEL Rs 51.8 million, Escorts Rs 46.8 million, Ranbaxy Rs 44.9 million, Infosy Tech Rs 44.9 million, Dr Reddy Rs 36.2 million, HDFC Bank Rs 35.7 million, Hero Honda Rs 35.3 million and M&M Rs 30.6 million.

The top five gainers on the NSE were IDBI, Nestle, Asian Paints, Ranbaxy and IPCL. The top five losers were MTNL, Cochin Ref, Bajaj Auto, Rel Petro and ACC.

The wholesale debt market of NSE witnessed increased activity with trades worth Rs 12 million. The 10.85 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was traded for Rs 140 million at a weighted yield of 9.99 per cent. The 12.59 per cent government loan maturing in 2004 was traded for Rs 116 million at a weighted yield of 10.72 per cent. The 12.19 per cent government loan maturing in 2005 was traded for Rs 115 million at a weighted yield of 10.80 per cent. The 364-day Treasury bill maturing on July 3, 1998, was traded for Rs 290 million at 7.68 per cent.

UNI