Sentiment Buoyant Despite Freefall

Where will the slide halt? That seems to be the question uppermost on the minds of most players as the Sensex crashed by about 120 points yesterday. However, despite the steep fall, overall sentiment is by no means jittery. In fact, players are in the mood to buy some more in case of a further fall.

Goodbye.....for now

Even as fund managers are busy purchasing shares at the Zee Telefilms counter, the One-Man Army is in the process of booking profits. He is reported to have sold close to 1.5 million shares over the last couple of weeks alone. With his sales getting absorbed due to the buying interest at the counter, prices have not been impacted so far.

 

Bitter dose

Even as new local kids on the pharma block (read Glenmark) are being chased by players, the Glaxo scrip is not finding any respite. Aggressive selling pressure at the counter, mainly from Big Daddy, is pushing scrip prices to new lows by the day. Close to 1.2 lakh shares are reported to have been dumped by the Big Bull brokerage on Monday . An interesting aspect is that the sales have been getting absorbed gradually. With many MNC-FMCG funds in the process of shopping, fund managers do not seem to mind buying such stocks at these valuations.

Not connecting

A steady stream of profit booking at the MTNL counter has kept prices subdued over the last couple of trading sessions. Mr Big is reported to be the seller, having sold a little over a million shares over the last couple of trading sessions. Yesterday the scrip fell by as much as Rs 20 on the BSE during intra-day trading, however managed to close only Rs 10 lower or about 2.5 per cent.

Sharp rebound

The Sterlite scrip flared up sharply yesterday after falling sharply from Rs 890 levels. Institutional buying interest at the counter could not be confirmed, though it does not necessarily mean that the buying was purely speculative. The sharp fluctuation in prices point towards a speculative operation. But the fact that price remained frozen at both exchanges despite being the last day of settlement on the NSE points towards some institutional buying interest.

Back to square one

All the frenzied buying interest at the SBI counter on Monday proved to be of little help in the end. A blast of selling pressure yesterday once again took the wind out of the stock price. Close to 1 million shares were reported to have been dumped by the Co-Tech Securities on behalf of one of its institutional clients. An additional 3 lakh shares were reported to have been sold by the Ell Kay Pee brokerage, reliably believed to be on behalf of Uncle Sam.

In the recent past, hardly any fund manager would have managed to make a profit at the SBI counter. Also, with many private banks adding a tech feature to their banking services, fund managers have a wider range of choice now. After Uncle Sam burnt his fingers at the counter, it now seems to be the turn of Mr Big, who incidentally was the buyer on Monday.

Harvest of destruction

The fund manager at the Big Boy must be really squirming in his seat after seeing the Punjab Tractors scrip getting beaten to a pulp almost every other day. The scrip, figures among the key constituents in his portfolio has been at the receiving end of some of the other members of the fund manager community. The Y Car brokerage is reported to have been a seller at the counter over the last couple of days, pushing the scrip to new lows.

Ironically, every single fund manager in town will swear by the company's business and the credentials of the management. However, few are willing to go bargain-hunting when the flavour of the season is to stuff your portfolio with as much software as possible.