Sensex dips 11 pts
Mumbai--Technology stocks saw renewed buying interest on both bourses on Tuesday. However, the late buying in these stocks could not improve the overall sentiment, that saw the BSE-30 share Sensex close lower by around 11 points. The S&P CNX Nifty closed at 1127.15, down by 3.95 points.
In the later part of the day technology stocks were in the limelight. Infosys, Satyam and Wipro counters were up. Infosys was up by around Rs 30 or 0.8 per cent primarily due to the upgradation of Infosys ADR by a foreign fund.
UTI Bank was up by 2.10 per cent on reports of sale of its stake to a foreign entity. But on a dull day, media counters were the cynosure of all eyes with number of them hitting the upper circuit.
Mukta Arts, Balaji Telefilms, Cinevista, Tip Industries, Adlab Films were up by around 8 per cent while stocks of Pritish Nandy Communication were up by 7.9 per cent while Mid-day Multimedia was up 7.9 per cent.

Stock prices moved in a narrow range with poor activity from both the institutional players and the operators. The BSE-30 share Sensex closed at 3498.39 against yesterday’s close of 3509.32 showing a fall of 10.93 points. The BSE benchmark index opened lower in the morning at 3504.24 and touched a low of 3484 during the day.
Stocks which pulled the sensex down were Hindalco, which lost 6.17 per cent to close at Rs 819.75, SBI, MTNL, ICICI, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto. Volumes were restricted to select counters. Cyclical stocks mainly from the automobile sector were down. Pharma counters saw some activity on hopes of expectations of a market friendly drug policy.
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FIs rethink on VST stake sale
Mumbai—The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), General Insurance Corporation (GIC) and Unit Trust of India (UTI) are doing a rethink on the issue offloading their 20 per cent stake in favour of the Damanis’ Bright Star Investments at the revised offer price of Rs 151.
The FIs are also unwilling to sell their stake to Russell Credit as its offered price of Rs 125 is much lower than the current quoted market price of the VST scrip.
As Sebi’s deadline for the closure of the VST offer expires on Wednesday, such a decision by the FIs effectively puts the clock back in the month-long takeover drama where Russell Credit and RS Damani’s Bright Star have made efforts to increase their stake in VST Industries through competing bids.
The FIs are now awaiting the responses of the other minority shareholders since the final figures pertaining to the two offers are not yet known.
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Bombay Dyeing, Britannia plan to buyback shares Mumbai-- Nusli Wadia group companies have decided to implement a share buyback programme. Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) and The Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Co Ltd in notices to the stock exchanges said that the two companies will meet on Thursday, June 14 to consider a proposal for buyback of the companies' shares. The move is intended to further consolidate Wadias' holdings in the two companies. The companies may announce after the meeting, the price and the method of share buyback. It is not clear whether the companies will go in for the open market purchase route or make a tender offer.
As of March 2001, the promoters' holding in Bombay Dyeing was 40.14 per cent. Local institutions and mutual funds held 18.03 per cent, GDRs 2.73 per cent, NRIs/OCBs 0.78 per cent, private bodies corporates 12.02 per cent and public 26.29 per cent.

For the year ended March 2001, Bombay Dyeing reported gross income of Rs 1,042.41 crore with profit before tax of Rs 18.13 crore and net profit of Rs 18.13 crore. Its paid-up equity capital was Rs 41 crore and networth Rs 656.77 crore. The book value as of March 2001 was Rs 160.18 per share.

Wadias and their collaborators Danone together hold about 44 per cent stake in BIL and institutions hold around eight per cent. The book value of BIL, as of March 2000, was Rs 62.58 per share.
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No compensation for Vyaj badla investors
Mumbai--The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has decided not to compensate investors who are losing out in the vyaj badla finance from its investor protection fund and trade guarantee fund.
The total loss for the investors is around Rs 800 crore. The reason BSE officials say is because the BSE cannot afford to take such a huge financial burden.

Another reason is that a number of brokers had not routed their clients’ money through the official system but used the private badla route and it would be extremely difficult for the exchange to differentiate between genuine and bogus trade certificates, sources said.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) officials refused to comment. The BSE and the NSE have altogether received over 400 complaints for non-refund of funds invested under the BSE’s borrowing and lending of securities scheme (BLESS) and the NSE’s automatic lending and borrowing mechanism (ALBM). The amount involved may be around Rs 800 crore.
Member of Parliament Kirit Somaiya’s Investors Grievance Forum has already taken up the issue with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
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