Back in the limelight: State Bank of India was the star performer of the day. After a period of over three months, the counter witnessed a phenomenal volume of over 64.7 lakh shares on the BSE. According to market sources, the surge in volumes is on account of the fresh FII orders being routed at the counter. The huge sell off witnessed by the banking representative had brought down the FII stake to even below 15 per cent, said brokers. The bank rate cut infused newlife at the counter. The stock surged by over 5 per cent to closed at Rs 178.70 after trading at the day's high of Rs 182. Market was agog with rumours that Morgan Broking is back to the markets to pick up its favourite banking stock. However, PNB Mutual fund was rumoured to have sold heavily at the counter.

Changing name is the game: Another non-specified stock in the limelight on account of change in name. Consortex Karl Doelitzseh, formerly known as AP Power Tools, has suddenly witnessed fresh enquiries. This time, however, it is not `info-tech' said brokers but a foreign name, which helped the stock suddenly hog the limelight. The stock today shot up by over 42 per cent to touch a high of Rs 3.20 on the National Stock Exchange. The stock is also listed on the BSE. Interestingly, the counter had a huge auction of 53,100 shares on the NSE on Thursday.

Cross-deals galore: Reshuffling of portfolios and fund transfer now seems to have become a regular feature of the markets since the budgetday. A similar exercise was witnessed on Thursday at the counter of Tata Hydro. The counter registered over 10 trades on the negotiated segment of the BSE. Four trades of 25,000 shares each was reported by Morgan Broking at Rs 54.10. Similarly, three other trades were reported by a leading local brokerage house of 25,000 each again at Rs 54.10. Another power stock namely Andhra Valley also registered 4 cross deals of 25,000 shares each at Rs 52.60.

Correction sets in: Info-tech stocks like Infosys and Wipro which helped the market cap rise by over 40 per cent on the local bourses came down crashing as local funds and select FIIs were reported to have booking some quick profits at the counters. Interestingly, at one point of time Infosys Technologies, Mastek and NIIT were locked at the lower end of the circuit on the local bourses. While Infosys was locked at Rs 3,106, Mastek was locked at Rs 847.80 and NIIT at Rs 2,118. Similarly, all pharma stocks witnessed huge bouts of sales reflecting on theirstock prices. However, Pfizer was an exceptional case as the stock will enter the no-delivery phase on the BSE from March 8. After touching a low of Rs 1,125 the stock closed at Rs 1,240 registering a net gain of 4.26 per cent. Again market was agog with rumours that Morgan Broking has still not completed the execution of the pending buy orders.