Short-Covering In Futures Yanks Up Satyam

Trading volumes in the shares of Satyam Computer Services today jumped on both the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) to 3.89 crore and 3.84 crore shares, respectively. The stock closed 4.34 per cent higher at Rs 237, a shade lower than its intra-day high of Rs 238.50 on the BSE.

According to dealers, the jump in volumes resulted from a combination of short covering by players from the derivatives market just before expiry of the August futures and options today and the company's alliance with TRW having received a large job from US government.

"For a lot of bears the Rs 234-235 was a critical level from where it had gone down earlier. That's broken now on the upside, which means bulls have taken control of the stock at this point of time," a dealer said.

The scrip on Wednesday surged 3.65 per cent to Rs 227.15 with 85.80 lakh shares changing hands . The previous day (Tuesday), the scrip clocked volumes of a staggering 1.10 crore shares though it had come off sharply from the day's high.

In the last few trading sessions, the stock staged a recovery of about 20 per cent from the lower level of Rs 194.20 on 5 August 2002 to today's Rs 237.

The latest recovery on the counter also comes on the back of market grapevine that the company has bagged a very large order that spans a 15-year period. Dealers say there is some investment buying interest in the stock currently.

A few weeks ago, global private equity fund Warburg Pincus bought a 5.3 per cent stake in Satyam Computer Services through open market purchases. Warburg acquired 1.7 crore shares (amounting to a 5.3 per cent stake) from the market between 25 June and 6 August 2002.

Satyam recently entered into a premier partnership with Ireland-based IONA, a leading e-business platform provider for Web services integration, to deliver the Orbix E2A web services integration and application server platforms.

As per the agreement, Satyam will establish a web services integration practice dedicated to the implementation of IONA Orbix E2A. Satyam consultants will work with IONA to implement Orbix E2A as part of e-business integration solutions for the telecommunications, manufacturing, and financial services industries. As part of this alliance, Satyam and IONA will also engage in co-marketing activities.