FII activity picks up

Jardine Fleming Broking is rumoured to have executed huge buy orders at the counters of Dabur and Zee Telefilms on behalf of Allianze Fund. However, according to market grapevine, Jardine has on its own account sold about 50,000 shares of MTNL, 1.25 lakh shares of ICICI and 30,000 shares of HPCL and bought eight lakh shares of IPCL, 3,500 of Wipro and 15,000 shares each of Mastek and Aptech. Similarly, WI Carr has also played a vital role in executing deals at the counters of CMC and Indo Rama Synthetics. HSBC Securities is rumoured to have placed both buy and sell orders at the counters of Bhel and HPCL. Going against the wave: Not everyone is scared of building up fresh position on the eve of the budget.

There are some who are believed to have taken fresh positions at the Tata group counters like Tisco and Telco. This is despite the high badla charges and the fact that the overall long positions in the unofficial markets have also reached phenomenal levels. The brokers taking a contrarion position feelthat the finance minister would give a Swadeshi touch to the budget. Among the beneficiaries, they believe, would be Tata group companies. Funds kick start Bajaj Auto: Fund managers are taking a second look at Bajaj Auto, when the two-wheeler major's stock has turned attractive again. The revaluation is backed by whispers of Bajaj Auto recovering some market share with innovative new product introduction and thanks to the internal problems of its rivals, LML and Kinetic Honda. Most of the funds have put Bajaj Auto on buy lits at Rs 480-500 levels and a lot of accummulation is taking place at present. On Friday, the stock closed at Rs 486 registering a net loss of 1.78 per cent over Thursday's closing on the NSE.

Petrochemical bulls: Petrochemicals stood out from the rest of the crowd in a market where speculators have been unwinding their positions over the last few days. The petrochemicals shares were the only shares which provided a breather to the market on expectation of complete decontrol of the oilsector in tomorrow's budget. Besides, the market expects the sector to get other sops like import duty reliefs on capital goods for transportation of refinery products. Fund managers see this sector as the best bet.Dredging on cash flows: There is action brewing up at this counter with the stock touching the upper circuit at Rs 75.65 from its previous close of Rs 70.10. ``The company has total cash in hand and in bank of Rs 250 crore while the total market capitalisation of the company is less than Rs 200 crore. This means that the company is very strong and it should move up from these levels'', said a fund manager. The stock was barred from trading on BSE and NSE in the Q II '98 due to unrealistic prices .

-- Nalini D'Souza, Biju Mathew and Parul Monga

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