Pantaloon Retail witnesses block deals
Mumbai: Pantaloon Retail, the apparel company, has seen several block deals in its counter on Thursday. Dealers were quoted as saying that block deals of around 20 lakh shares were stuck in the afternoon at Rs 96. These block deals accounted for around 12 per cent of the company's equity. Buyers were mainly mutual funds and seller was a leading domestic broking firm that has been very bullish on the retailing sector over the last six months.

There were four funds that bought the shares through these block deals. The main factor for institutional interest is on account of the good prospects for the company's retailing business. Pantaloon has retail stores under the Pantaloon and Big Bazaar brands. Of this, Big Bazaar has been doing well and the company is increasing the number of outlets across the country. It has already opened stores under Big Bazaar in major cities such as Mumbai (2 stores), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon (near Delhi).
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Reliance hogs the limelight
Mumbai: Reliance Industries' stocks were back in limelight and were a key stock for the key indices to close sharply higher on Thursday. Dealers told newspersons that there was heavy buying in the counter from across the section of the market. The interest in the counter was due to talks in the market that the company might place part of the stake in either to strategic or institutional investors.

The placement of the shares is from the shares lying in the trust after the merger of Reliance Petroleum with the company. Several potential buyers' names are floating in the market for acquiring the stake. The placement price would be around Rs 360 and this would bring additional funds for the company, dealers said.
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Brokers' union agrees to CSE demutualisation proposal
Kolkata: Members of Calcutta Stock Brokers' Association have given their go-ahead to the Calcutta Stock Exchange board's proposal on demutualisation. The move followed a discussion of the draft demutualisation scheme that was earlier worked out by the CSE. A meeting held on Tuesday saw members discuss various issues connected to the scheme, including its possible impact on their relationship with the exchange.

The association had earlier moved the exchange authorities on the matter of demutualisation, a proposal that the exchange had said came with "no obligation or commitment" from it. The CSE had also made an executive summary of the scheme available to members for suggestions.
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UTI RIS declares 0.6% dividend
Mumbai: UTI Mutual Fund's UTI Regular Income Scheme (UTI RIS) has declared a dividend of 0.60 per cent or Rs 0.060 per unit on a face value of Rs 10, resulting in tax-free annualised return of 7.44 per cent to investors and 8.39 per cent annualised outflow for the scheme.

Investors who exist in the books on the close of business of July 31, 2003 and, who have opted for income option, are eligible for the dividend. This is the seventh income distribution paid by the scheme in the current year.
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Rupee goes a bit up
Mumbai: The rupee ended marginally higher against the dollar at 46.1550/1650 on Thursday, compared to Wednesday's close at 46.16/1650. The domestic currency opened 46.13/14, and touched an intra-day high of 46.12/13 on the back of strong supplies of the greenback due to exporters selling their dollars coupled by relatively low import demand.
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