Rupee steady; bonds gain
Mumbai: The Indian currency closed at 46.8950/9050 on Friday, almost unchanged from Thursday's close at 46.90/91. According to forex traders, the market witnessed a significant amount of buying interest on the dollar from both banks and corporates. The rupee, which opened the day at 46.90/91 slipped to an intra-day low of 47.01 on the back of good dollar demand. "Exporters who are taking dollar loans etc, are hedging their positions by booking forwards and, hence, the premiums have started to inch up. There is also genuine dollar demand from corporates," said a forex dealer with a private sector bank. Forward premia started to harden once again, with the six-month premium ending at 1.02 per cent (0.60 per cent) and the one-year premium ending at 1.05 per cent (0.61 per cent).
Back to News Review index page  

Infosys, Reliance, ITC suffer setback
Mumbai: After a rather dreary week, when the market nervously dipped to lower levels, the closing session turned bullish. Though Friday's trading session was weak by mid-day, the closing was strong. However, despite a number of pivotals gaining ground on Friday, the continued fall in the valuation of Infosys Technologies and a marginal decline in a few old economy counters, led to only a modest nine per cent rise in the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-stock sensitive index (Sensex). The Sensex opened flat at 3,041.63 points and climbed to an intra-day high of 3,060.48 and despite slipping below the previous day's close of 3,040.79, strong buying support towards the end of the session pushed up the Sensex to close at 3,049.84 points. With that nine points rise, the Sensex closed lower by 0.22 per cent over the corresponding trading session of the previous week and represented a gain of about 3.4 per cent over the month-ago level.
Back to News Review index page  

SBI stock zooms on institutional support
Mumbai: The State Bank of India (SBI) stock on Friday set a new 52-week high of Rs 343.70 and was headed towards its all-time high on institutional interest, a trend currently apparent in bank stocks. In the special segment or the institutional window, FIIs traded 2.6 lakh shares of the premium bank at Rs 355 per share, just Rs 3 shy of its life high of Rs 358 a share hit on July 9, 1997.
In the institutional window it traded at a 3 per cent premium to the day's high in the regular market at Rs 343.70. It closed at Rs 341.90 on the BSE, up 4.19 per cent from its previous close, and at Rs 341.50, or 4.10 per cent higher than its previous close, on the NSE. The market capitalisation in the counter today touched Rs 18,000 crore.
Back to News Review index page  

Nalco strategic sale deferred — IPO to go through by September
New Delhi: The high-profile proposed strategic sale of the Government's equity in National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), the top low-cost producer of aluminium globally, has been deferred, which in bureaucratic parlance is meant to mean ``postponed indefinitely''. ``The Government has taken a decision that the strategic sale will be put off, but at least the IPO will be done by September and we are working towards meeting that deadline,'' said Munesh Khanna, managing director, N.M. Rothschild & Sons (India) Pvt Ltd,said.
Back to News Review index page  

Eveready gains on turnaround
Mumbai: The turnaround by tea and batteries manufacturing company Eveready Industries in the last fiscal has attracted market attention with the stock price of the company locked in the 20 per cent upper circuit on Friday. For the year ended March 2003, the company reported net profit of Rs 11.13 crore on sales of Rs 942.5 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 15.33 crore on sales of Rs 883.5 crore in the previous year. The stock closed at Rs 17.80 on the BSE with a volume of 1.80 lakh shares and on the NSE, it closed at Rs 17.95 with over 2.80 lakh shares changing hands.
Back to News Review index page  

UTI to sell old building
Mumbai: The Unit Trust of India has decided to sell its old corporate office building and has invited bids from interested parties.

As per the tender notice, UTI — which has three properties at 13, 41 and 37 at New Marine Lines in South Mumbai — is selling the total area of 54,172 sq. ft., which includes the five-storey headquarters building of 39,175 sq. ft. through tenders in "as-is-where-is-condition". The sale process would be facilitated by the Estate Department of the UTI without the involvement of any brokers or real estate consultancy firm.
Back to News Review index page