Fund buying lifts UTI Bank
Mumbai: The stock of private sector UTI Bank has been attracting significant interest over the past few days. According to dealers, two large mutual funds were seen mopping up the shares of the bank on Tuesday. In fact, the counter witnessed two large block deals on Monday. The buying seems to be have been triggered by renewed rumours about a couple of private banks being interested in picking up strategic stake in UTI Bank. The share price of UTI Bank on Tuesday rose 2.68 per cent on the BSE, closing at Rs 51.70 with trading volumes of 2.84 lakh shares. On the NSE, the stock closed at Rs 51.85, up 2.8 per cent with 7.72 lakh shares being traded.
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Priyadarshini Cement hits upper limit
Kochi: Reports of promoters looking to offload their 50.67 per cent stake in Priyadarshini Cements saw the share hit the upper 20 per cent limit on the BSE today despite the company's denial of any such move. The stock closed at Rs 11.55 up 19.69 per cent with 8,951 shares traded on the BSE. On the NSE the stock closed at Rs 11.50 up 20.42 per cent with 28,548 shares traded.
Commenting on the trend at the counter on Tuesday, brokers said that a large amount of interest in the Andhra Pradesh-based loss-making company was speculative following media reports. However, according to analysts while the timing may be a bit off, the deal is a possibility. As per reports, the promoters of Priyadarshini Cement have appointed IL&FS to find a strategic partner for the company.
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Unchanged open offer price pulls down L&T
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro shares fell on the major exchanges on Tuesday, as the day passed with no indication from Grasim of any increase in its open offer price of Rs 190 per share to L&T shareholders contrary to market expectations. Tuesday was the last day for revising the open offer price. A spokesperson for Grasim said the company had not made any changes to its open offer price. The L&T scrip lost 4.11 per cent on the BSE, closing at Rs 207.45; it lost 3.86 per cent on the NSE, closing at Rs 208.
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SBI remains active
Mumbai: The derivatives segment on the NSE witnessed increased trading on Tuesday, with only three days before the expiry of the May contracts. The turnover was higher by 3.4 per cent at Rs 3,079 crore as compared to Monday's turnover of Rs 2977 crore.

The May Nifty future was the most active contract in the segment. With the spot Nifty closing the day in the negative territory, the May futures closed at Rs 972, losing Rs 12.60 form its previous close of Rs 984.60. Open interest declined by 25.97 per cent. The June futures closed the day at Rs 970.85, lower by Rs 12. Open interest increased by 65 per cent. SBI and Satyam were the most actively traded contracts. The spot SBI declined Rs 5.70 to close at Rs 338.75. The May future closed the day at Rs 339. With trading interest shifting to the June contracts, open interest for May contracts declined 23.26 per cent.
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Volatile trading session at BSE
Mumbai: It was a volatile trading session at the bourses on Tuesday. After touching a high of 3118.58 during the early part of the day, the BSE Sensex witnessed a sharp slide in the later part to close at 3081.94 points. A sharp fall in the values of both old economy and new economy stocks in the last one hour of trading led to the Sensex closing 14.75 points (0.48 per cent) lower than Monday's close. The fall can be attributed to profit booking at the end of the day's trading. The S & P CNX Nifty also declined by 5.60 points (or 0.57 per cent) to settle for the day at 976.85. The gross turnover at the exchange rose from Rs. 1,028.36 crore on Monday's trading to Rs 1,172.04 crore during the day's trading. The advances to declines ratio stood at 0.76, with 689 stocks appreciating in value while 905 stocks logged declines
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Pie up, public stake down in top IT cos
Chennai: Tier-I information technology stocks including Infosys and Satyam Computers seem to have lost their charm among retail investors in the last one year. On the contrary, there has been an increased liking for tier-II (mid-sized) IT companies such as Hughes Software and Infotech Enterprises in the period under review. This is evident from an analysis of the shareholding pattern of the top-11 IT stocks (in terms of turnover, and those firms which announced their results before May 24) for the year ended March 31, 2003 when compared to the previous year. As on March 31, 2003, the public holding in Infosys fell to 10.59 per cent against 12.51 per cent last year. Similarly, the public holding in Satyam Computers reduced to 8.47 per cent (10.94 per cent), and in Digital GlobalSoft to 9.19 per cent (10.41 per cent).On the contrary, the public holding in tier-II companies including Mascot Systems increased to 5.37 per cent as on March 31, 2003 compared to 4.92 per cent the previous year.
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Rupee firm; gilts listless
Mumbai: The rupee closed on Tuesday unchanged from Monday's levels at 46.89/90 against the dollar in the domestic currency markets. It was a day of good supplies of the greenback and the central bank was not seen intervening to mop up dollar liquidity, said a dealer in a public sector bank. "There was unusual demand towards the end of the day which prevented the rupee from appreciating. Private banks were seen buying dollars,'' said a dealer.
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HSE plans golden handshake
Hyderabad: With the deadline issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for completing the corporatisation and demutualisation of stock exchanges nearing, the Hyderabad Stock Exchange (HSE) has stepped up the process of valuation of its assets and liabilities and preparing a golden handshake package to its employees. According to sources close to the exercise, the six-member Committee on Corporatisation and Demutualisation has expressed the view that the transformation of stock exchange in the recent past from traditional outcry and manual system to online, electronic and demat system has made the exchange `highly overstaffed'.
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