On A Positive Note
Further, with the Nasdaq holding up, the feeling is that when the Federal Reserve meets next week it would leave interest rates untouched. This would lead to a greater degree of stability on the Wall Street, which, in turn, could offer some clarity of direction on the Dalal Street.
Sterlite back in action.
With all the battering that Sterlite Industries received, thanks to the goof up in its tender to the Department of Telecommunications, the scrip finally found some value buyers. They felt that the fall in its share price more than discounted the reasons for the correction. Big Daddy was the first to sense the opportunity and bought into the stock aggressively. King Kong Brokerage also bought about 5 lakh shares for its client who saw it was as an opportunity on the basis of technicals, if nothing else.
One has to also take into account the fact that the scrip had witnessed a sharp downward fall in the not-so-distant past. However, the feeling is that Sterlite will manage to overcome the hurdles and bounce back in the limelight.
Hot ICE
The buying in the ICE (information technology, communication and entertainment) sector is slowly gaining ground. About 3 lakh shares of Satyam Computers were bought by Jordan Flaming broking outfit and about 50,000 shares of Infosys by Universal Banking. Numero Uno brokerage did a round of basket buying for its clients, picking up small quantums of Satyam and NIIT. Y Carr Brokerage also picked up about a lakh of Software Solutions to send the stock soaring 10 per cent. However, domestic funds took a contrarian view at the counter and used the rise to book profits.
A defensive ploy.
For the more conservative types, good old fast moving consumer goods major Hindustan Lever was considered a safe bet. Clean Son Brokerage picked up about 4 lakh shares in the previous trading session for one of its clients. Yesterday too, about a million shares were reported to have been picked up by one of the largest foreign funds in the market. With the ICE sector showing early signs of solidifying again, fund managers are again in two minds as to the extent to which the defensive game needs to be played.
Old Economy blues.
With the rise in international crude oil prices, Old Economy stocks are expected to take a hit. P N Brokerage sold about a million shares of Tata Steel and about half a million shares of Tata Engineering in the last trading session. However, one stock which showed a contrarion behaviour in spite of being impacted by the rise in crude prices was Reliance, where about 3 lakh shares were bought by the King Kong Brokerage and another lakh or so by Numero Uno.
Thinking aloud.
MTNL, the largest player in the telecom sector, has a market capitalisation of $2 billion. Compare this with China Unicom, the telecom major in China which enjoys a market capitalisation of 140 billion dollars after its divestment. The poor valuation being attributed to a monopoly like MTNL is the simple reason that no one would like to be invested in a company being run by the government. Our bureaucrats should realise the hidden wealth and unlock the same by speeding up the divestment process.