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Bombay shares up, off early highs

BOMBAY: Blue chips on the Bombay bourse started the week strong but were off their early highs after a bout of late profit booking, traders said.

They said shares of Reliance touched an early high of 225.50 rupees before ending at 220.75, up 3.25 from Friday's close.

Pivotals IPCL, TISCO, ACC, Indian Hotels and Premier Auto also ended up but off their day's highs.

"There's been a tremendous amount of buying but the market has been pulled up mainly by speculators," said a trader at a leading Indian brokerage.

He said prices were likely to drift lower after the last day of the current account on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday.

"We are very close to the top in the intermediate term and will probably see prices come off slowly beginning Wednesday," he said.

BSE's 30-share benchmark index rose around 77 points, or 2.2 percent, to 3,487.51 during last week.

Traders said the index appears to have gained enough support to move onto its historic resistance zone of 3,600 points. The broader National index faces resistance at 1650 points. Traders said foreign funds were buyers in the more liquid, large capitalisation stocks ahead of the polls. "Funds are icking up all index and A group stocks. the buying hasn't yet spread to the B group", one trader said. Aluminum maker NALCO rose 1.25 rupees to 32.75 on the BSE after the firm said its net profit rose 109 percent to 6.26 billion rupees in 1995/96. It was up 3.50 rupees at 33 on NSE. SBJ rose sharply on reports it had attracted large backwardation charges in the last account. The share rose five rupees to 273.75 on the BSE and gained 7.50 rupees to 276.45 on the NSE.-Reuter