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HLL results offset UTI selling; Sensex up six points, 2895.84

Impressive results by Hindustan Lever Limited helped the market to maintain a steady trend, despite selling pressure from the Unit Trust of India and speculative operators at the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

The growth achieved by HLL during the nine months ended September 30, 1998 was more than market expectations, said an analyst. The marketmen were expecting a growth of 20-25 per cent rather than the actual 60 per cent growth, he added.

According to leading BSE brokers, the foreign institutional investors made purchases in IPCL and L&T while sizeable purchases by the company circles were reported in Telco and Tisco scrips. The UTI was generally a seller today, they said.

Mirroring the trend, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index opened at 2891.36 points, touched the day's high of 2895.90, fell to the day's low of 2856.32 points, before closing at 2895.84 points, showing a net gain of 6.13 points over the previous close of 2889.71.

The broad-based BSE-100 index, however, eased slightly by 0.17 points to 302.14 from the previous close of 302.78 points.

The HLL scrip touched the day's high of 1622 immediately after the announcement of the results but did not find any buying support and fell to 1571, the day's low before closing at 1615, higher by Rs 25 from the previous close on some institutional buying interest, dealers said.

Similarly, IPCL which also posted a net prfit of Rs 328.6 million during the second quarter reported a gain of Rs 2 to Rs 58.40 over the previous close on the BSE. Expecting improved results from vehicle major Telco, the scrip on the BSE advanced smartly by Rs 6 to Rs 109 on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the BSE-200 and Dollex indices registered minimum losses of 0.64 and 0.17 to 302.14 and 119.03 points from the previous close of 302.78 and 119.20 points.

In the overseas markets, the Nikkie benchmark index at Tokyo declined by 301.24 points to 13843.46 points.

The FTSE-100 at London, however, registered an increase of 25 points at 5257.40 on Tuesday when reports last came in. Similarly, the Hang Seng index at Hong Kong rose by 148.14 points at 9927.05 points.

Total turnover on the screen-based trading system at the BSe rose to Rs 15.21 billion from yesterday's turnover of Rs 13.55 billion.

Infotech giant Satyam Computers topped the list of turnover by registering highest turnover of Rs 2.85 billion, followed by Pentafour Software Rs 2.43 billion, ITC Rs 1.94 billion, Zee Telefilms Rs 1.25 billion and Reliance Rs 1 billion.

Other actively traded scrips included Hindustan Lever (Rs 619.4 million), Telco (Rs 554.2 million), MTNL (Rs 461 million), Castrol (Rs 180.4 million), ACC (Rs 160.9 million), Dr Reddy's (Rs 156.1 million), Tata Tea (Rs 139 million), L&T (Rs 138.5 million) and Infosys Tech (Rs 132.5 million).

UNI