According to a section of brokers, investors - both institutional and corporate - prefer to trade through the negotiated route where deals can be settled between the two parties directly in the form in which the buyer wants his shares.

``Especially in the case of PSU stocks where transfer takes about 3-4 months, clients approach us to conduct deals on the negotiated platform which could be routed through the demat form,'' explained Sandeep Shah of Kotak Securities, in the light of instances where clients fail to book profits in the market due to the delay caused by these companies in transferring the shares. Interestingly, a spate of negotiated deals have been registered at the counters of IPCL, HPCL, GAIL and ONGC.

The details of negotiated deals on the BSE as of October 27 also throws light on thechanging patterns of trade on the bourse. Bajaj Auto witnessed three negotiated deals, two cross deals of 5,000 shares each and a bulk deal of 10,000 shares in the price band of Rs 567 to Rs 569. Similarly, the other deals reported on the exchange include: Hindustan Lever 20,000 shares were traded at a price of Rs 1,600, Bank of Baroda about 17,000 shares were traded at price of Rs 55, Hindalco at a price of Rs 514 with a deal of 5,000 shares was reported on the exchange, Tata Infotech registered a bulk deal of 10,000 shares at a price of Rs 1,425 while Cochin Refinery witnessed a deal of 10,000 shares at a price of Rs 144.

Interestingly, Indal and GE Shipping witnessed phenomenal deals of 1.63 lakh shares and 12 lakh shares at price of Rs 56.25 to Rs 58.75 and Rs 21.85 respectively.