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BSE, NSE stay depressed

The week opened on a cheerful note following the announcement of stringent measures by the Reserve Bank of India to curb the speculative activities in the interbank foreign exchange market which improved the sentiment in the capital market and the Sensex zoomed up over 135 points during the intraday trading session. But, these measures failed to attract FIIs to invest in the Indian borers for the rest of the week.

Reflecting, the downtrend, the BSE Sensitive index (30 scrips) closed at 3351.21 points as against the previous week's close of 3382.32 points suffering a loss of 31.11 points. The broadbased BSE-100 National index finished at 1460.39 points losing by 17.31 points over the previous week's close of 1477.70 points.

The BSE-200 index settled down at 327.01 points as compared to last week's close of 332.48 points decreasing by 5.47 points. However, the Dollex index recovered by 03.82 points to 140.97 points as against the previous week's close of 137.15 points.

The total turnover during the week system was recorded at Rs 44.32 billion.

During the week, the L C Gupta Committee, appointed by Securities and Exchange Board of India to develop appropriate regulatory framework for derivatives trading in stock exchanges in the country, submitted its final report.

Commenting on the report, BSE President M G Damani said that derivatives is incomplete and contains several lapses in it.

The continuous turmoil in Southeast Asian currencies and the downtrend in the stock prices in the major stock exchanges of the world had an adverse effect in the Indian bourses, leading brokers said.

The committee on settlement issues of the NSE has recommended that sellers be allowed to deliver either dematerialised or physical shares in the normal trading segment.

The NSE has also decided to replace shares if they get lost, damaged, or stolen in houses and central clearing house.

The NSE-50 index declined by 11.00 points to 986.80 points as against the previous week's close of 997.80 points.

However, the Dollar NSE-50 (Defty) index shot up by 23.25 points to 883.40 points over the last week's close of 860.15 points. The Midcap index settled down at 1118.60 points as compared to previous week's close of 1146.90 points decreasing by 23.30 points. The total turnover on the NSE during the week was Rs 56.75 billion.

Bluechip Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited has planned to invest Rs 100 billion as part of the expansion programme during the ninth plan period in Bombay and New Delhi to provide more telephone lines and other customised services.

During the week, NSE Managing Director Dr R H Patil had informed that 40 trading members of the NSE (capital market segment) have surrendered their membership to the exchange last year. Patil also announced various sops for trading members including intercity movement of papers, insurance cover for the papers being transferred from the regional clearing centre to the headquarters and some other relaxations.

The NSE also eased certain stringent measures including slapping a fine of Rs 5,000 for exceeding the exposure limits, instead of locking in the additional deposit brought in by the errant members for three months.

UNI