Net Outstandings Declines By Rs. 2,000 Crore In Last Six Months

The ICE sector, which began to give a respite to the speculator, slipped in the midst again in the last one month. The net outstanding position, which was looking good at Rs 2,610 crore a month ago is down by hefty Rs 700 crore in a month.

The decline in the outstanding position has been just erosion in the market value of the speculators, as the net outstanding volumes (number of shares) have not been declined considerably in last six months. The net outstanding volume of ICE stocks and highly traded old economy stocks continued to be higher than last six months.

As a result of wide spread depreciation in the value of ICE stocks in last six months, Business Standard ICE index fell by 52.8 per cent at 167.53. The market value of ICE sector fell by massive Rs 2,00,000 crore in last six months from Rs 3,74,050 crore on February 12 to Rs 1,74,758 crore on August 11, 2000.

Zee telefilms, the darling of the speculators and mutual funds, registered a fall of Rs 1,000 in market value at Rs 380. However, speculators still hanging around at Zee counter as the net outstanding volume of Zee rose to 40.64 lakh shares from 19.61 lakh shares on February 12, 2000.

Zee Telefilms' rising volume indicate that the FIIs and mutual funds have sold their holding in last six months and there has been no buyers who can take delivery even at this level.

The speculator thronged in for MTNL shares on prospective listing of Nasdaq. The government could not do anything except frequently announcing the prospective listing of shares. The market value after six months was more than half to Rs 168 (Rs 380) with outstanding volume rising to 33.22 lakh shares from 17.26 lakh shares.

The speculator queued in for Silverline on its ADR just too see the dipping of Silverline's market value to Rs 300 from Rs 1,340 on February 12. The series of announcements trapped the gullible speculators.

The net outstanding volume of Silverline rose to 25.78 lakh shares from 12.69 lakh shares. The long position in Pentamedia Graphics tripled to 27.03 lakh shares from 8.28 lakh shares, whereas the market value fell steeply to Rs 370 from Rs 1,840 six months ago.

The market value of Satyam Computer, Infosys Technologies, Digital Equipment and NIIT, though declined in last six months, there has been delivery based trading in these stocks even after the FIIs' selling.

Infosys' outstanding fell to 1.80 lakh from 2.08 lakh, Satyam Computer registered a fall in outstanding at 6.40 lakh (post split) from 4.04 lakh and NIIT registered a drop in outstanding to 2.36 lakh from 4.71 lakh.