Cautious Outlook

A minor correction finally set in and the market after opening on a firm note paused to take a breather. Old economy stocks, which had propelled and led the rally in the first place, were the ones to pause. This set the correction in motion and the index closed about 70 points lower than its intra day high.

However, the sentiment was fairly optimistic and the halt seems to have been taken in its stride by market participants. Asian markets were also mixed, though the Nikkei was up by a whopping 533 points. FIIs, barring a few, were cautious ahead of the US Presidential elections and preferred to wait and watch on the sidelines.The broad view emerging though was that the approach to the market by funds now on would be stock specific.

Stealing the show

Satyam Computer was one of the day's best performers and closed the day at the circuit limit of 8 per cent. About one-and-a-half million shares were picked up by P N brokerage on behalf of its client. Common Fund bought about three and a half lakh shares in the previous trading session, while Numero Uno picked up a lakh and a half for its client. Universal banking was another firm who bought a lakh shares.Y Car was the lone seller selling about 3 lakh shares.

Operator interest in the counter was another reason for the strong showing. With the American depositary receipt round the corner, interested quarters would like to see the counter remaining firm but in the perpetual battle between the bulls and the bears it remains to see how far this can go. The counter is definitely in for a good amount of volatility with quite a few surprises in store.

Move halted

ACC's upmove was halted in its tracks in spite of the strong buying that the counter has been witnessing over the past few days. A couple of funds and domestic institutions sold some stock which was more in the nature of profit booking. In the previous session though King Kong picked up 7 lakh shares on behalf of its client, while Asian brokerage another lakh. Co-Tech was also a big buyer of about 3 lakh shares.

Making a comeback

The volumes in the Ranbaxy counter are slowly on the rise and may be an indicator of renewed speculative interest as well. For the moment though funds seem to be mopping up the shares on the back of an upward rating of the stock. Asian brokerage bought 4 lakh shares for its client and Numero Uno followed suit but the quantum was much smaller. The stock is definitely taking centre stage once again and it wont be surprising to see it make a strong comeback.

Upward bound

MTNL is continuing to have its spectacular run on the bourses and the stock has not seen such favourable times in quite a while. It definitely has been one of the best performing stocks in this round of the rally, appreciating almost 50 per cent in a short span of time.

Cross Bee continued to mop up the stock as it has been doing so for the past few weeks. It picked up 7 lakh shares in the previous trading session and is believed to have bought some more today. Profit booking at higher levels by institutions however saw the stock off its days highs.

Tailpiece

All eyes will now be on the way the US markets behave ahead of the Presidential elections.The market will also try and take a cue from the way Nasdaq reacts to the results of Cisco which are due. These two events would direct the course of the market at least initially and where it takes on from there would depend on a host of other factors as well. All in all, fairly exciting times ahead.