Itc Spurts On Fii Buying
The ITC stock moved up sharply on the bourses on account of short-covering. ITCs scrip rose by Rs 12 to close at Rs 421.25 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The hectic buying into the counter came as rumours of financial institutional investors (FIIs) mopping up a huge chunk of the stock hit the capital markets.
There were rumours that an FII had bought a single chunk of 8.5 lakh of ITC shares on Wednesday. This prompted brokers to square up their positions in the counter, said Jayesh Sheth, a prominent BSE broker.
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Petro-hike impact: The market was also hit by conflicting rumours on the petroleum price hike. While the market expectation was that a price hike of around 15 per cent will be effected, marketmen said that a hike below 15 per cent would result in a rise in Sensex.
Dhiraj Agarwala of SSKI Securities, a prominent city-based institutional brokerage, said the market could react adversely for the first one or two days if the hike was over 20 per cent. After that, the hike factor will be discounted, he added.
HPCL was the only petroleum stock which moved up substantially during the day.
According to analysts, fresh buying is not coming in the B group counters as the selected 30-odd stocks have already gained by Rs 20-30.
The speculation has dried out in these counters and only some genuine buying interest is left, he added.
On the side-track
Among the side counters, there was a sizable amount of trading activity in Dr. Reddys, Lakme (touching its 52 week high at Rs 342 on the BSE) and Hero Honda (also at its 52 week high at Rs 477 on the NSE).