Another rally in stock market
Mumbai: Indian stock markets witnessed another rally, with sizeable peculative purchases. The 30-share Sensex opened at 4,656 and closed at a high of 4728.78, thus gaining 69.19 points against the previous day's close.

The Hindustan Lever Ltd scrip led the rally with foreign institutional investors lending buying support. A US fund is reported to have picked up 50,000 HLL shares, mainly on speculation that the company is planning a stock split. The company is also poised to post 25 to 30 per cent growth in net earnings for the second quarter, analysts believe.

State Bank of India, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda also flared up.
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Hindustan Lever scrip at record high
Mumbai: Hindustan Lever Ltd is at a record Rs 2,725 on the Bombay Stock Excahnge. The scrip reached this figure as a result of speculative buying. Institutional investors are also in the field acquiring large chunks of the shares.

It was rumoured that the company would go in for a stock split. The share price closed at Rs 2,720, up by Rs 142.

The market capitalisation of the HLL scrip reached a figure of Rs 59,723 crore. It had cleared the Rs 50,000 crore mark a few months ago. The Rs 10 shares of the company are now quoted 270 times the face value.
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NSE brokers found misusing negotiated trade
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India's annual inspection of the stock exchanges has revealed that brokers at the National Stock Exchange have misused the negotiated segment of trade.

The brokers, after booking trades, were found to be marking them as institutional trades. This helped them save on margin money, which until recently was over 40 per cent in case of non-institutional trades, the inspection report revealed.

Sebi has not taken a final view in the matter. It is likely that it will ask NSE to tighten its rules in this regard.
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JM Morgan predicts Sensex will touch 5800
Calcutta: JM Morgan Stanley's research team has concluded that the Bombay Stock Exchange index would touch the 5,800 mark in the next 12 months.

The team has also revised its gross domestic product growth forecast for 1999-200 to 6.5 per cent from an earlier 5.6 per cent.
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Merrill to manage MTNL divestment
New Delhi: The government is considering entrusting the work of handling the sale of its stake in Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd to Merrill Lynch, which will act as lead manager. The plan is to divest the stake through the GDR market.

The government proposes to sell 18 million shares, three per cent of MTNL's total equity. After the divestment, the government's holding in MTNL will be 51 per cent.
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Kale Consultants enters primary market
Mumbai: Kale Consultants, the software company, which is planning to enter the market, will be offering 3.6 million shares with a face value of Rs 10 at a premium of Rs 100 to Rs 120.

The company has filed its letter of offer with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The offer is to open in September. The company intends to use a part of the proceeds for acquisition purposes.
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