Making Merry At Others' Expense
After whipping up a frenzy on Thursday, market makers once again played mischief yesterday by palming off a part of their long positions to unwary, but enthusiastic, smaller players. The trend still does not look clear as the stock prices on the NSE firmed up towards the end of the trading session. Yesterday's steep fall on the BSE is reported to have been caused by unwinding of positions by brokers who exceed the permissible limits.
You are in queue
Given the mad scramble for the HFCL private placement, some of the institutional players have started to accumulate stocks in the secondary market itself. The issue is reported to have been oversubscribed on the second day itself. Among the players in the fray for allotment include the Savvy Fund Manager, Small Daddy and the Reliable Mutual Fund. Quite ironical, considering just a year back few fund managers were even willing to hear about the company, leave alone buy it. After the scrip has appreciated 25 times in value, fund managers are now falling over each other to get a share of the private placement pie.
Meanwhile, the Global Brokerage is reported to have picked up close to 1 million shares yesterday on behalf of one of the funds which has also bid for the placement. Punters wasted no time in piling on to the stock sending it soaring to the upper end of the circuit filter even on a weak day.
Renewed interest
After a brief lull, fund managers are once again back to make purchases at the Escorts counter. There had been scattered buying over the past week, but the intensity has picked up over the last couple of trading sessions, with the scrip regularly hitting the upper end of the circuit filter.
While the identity of the fund could not be confirmed, the Peace Brokerage is reported to be pushing the stock hard to its clients. Well, it is the same old restructuring story which has turned hot once again. With prices of other essential stocks (read software-cum-telecom) having shot up, fund managers are also looking at some of the less expensive options.
Shoe bite
While Apollo Hospital is going great guns, the Bata scrip is sure giving sleepless nights to the Junior Partner. Junior had been buying the stock even as fund managers were dumping it. There was some relief temporarily when some fund managers, mainly Big Boy did some bargain-hunting at the counter. But even that buying interest does not seem good enough looking at the way the stock price continues to plunge.
Calling Silent Operator
Last year around April, when cyclical stocks were continuously being hammered to new lows, the Silent Operator was an aggressive buyer at those counters. His bet did pay off, considering that he reaped handsome dividends at counters like Grasim, Madras Cements and SKF bearings. However, this time around, he has been keeping an extremely low profile. Surprising for a player who has always had a strong conviction for value stocks.
NBFC-turned-software
Punters were in full flow at the Reliance Capital counter yesterday, despite the overall bearish overhang in the market. Trading was frozen at both exchanges after the scrip hit the 8 per cent limit. The grapevine at the counter is that the recently acquired software start-ups as well as the telecom companies will be merged into Reliance Capital and the name changed so as to reflect the new business. This rumour has been doing the rounds for quite some time now. However, no institutional buying interest has been witnessed at the counter over the last few days. Outstanding positions at the counter have increased by 4 lakh shares since Monday.
The prominent institutional buyer at the counter was the Clive Lloyd George Fund, that too at Rs 120 levels. Punters would want to believe that no institution would bet on a pure NBFC company, there definitely has to be something more. But punters should also keep in mind the fact that institutions have deeper pockets to absorb their wrong calls.