Volume Frowns

Market sentiment improved today after better-than-expected quarterly results from Infosys Technologies. Almost all the players were edgy ever since the tech giant had issued a profit warning.

Also, a recovery in the Nasdaq on Monday saw bargain hunters back among new economy stocks. Selective buying was also seen in old economy stocks. Volumes, however, continued to remain a matter of concern for players.

Infosys

Infosys continued to remain extremely active. Fidly Fund, which in the recent past had picked more than 2 lakh shares, was active on the counter. Even Uncle Sam, the Big Bull broker and Jordan Flamingo were seen hot-picking the stock as the results beat market expectations.

Also, the results are seen encouraging in the fact that the growth remains robust despite conditions becoming worse over time. The stock, however, dropped 0.70% to Rs 3,494.85 towards the close of the session.

VSNL

VSNL's decision to announce a 500 per cent dividend took many players by surprise. Prudent Fund is reported to have picked around 35,000-50,000 shares. Other domestic funds were also active at the counter and everybody now expects the government to take a decision soon on divesting its stake in the company.

The Centre has already initiated the process to bring down its stake to 26 per cent from 52.97% and six bidders are in the race for the stake. Further, an inter-ministerial group asked the bidders to submit earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 500 crore in cash.

Changing strategy

Helper in Death seems to be now getting into the act and is playing the anchor role after Big Daddy landed in trouble. Of recently, it has picked up around 2 lakh shares of Tata Steel. It has also picked up around 1.2 lakh shares each of Larsen & Toubro, MTNL and HPCL. Also among the pick was about 50,000 shares of Dabur.

Among the other deals, Numero Uno brokerage today picked up around 2.50 lakh shares of Reliance. While another major foreign fund had dumped around 6 lakh shares of Zee Telefilm.