Similarly, the market expects the subsidiary's turnover to touch a high of Rs 180 crore by March-end. In the light of these expectations, analysts have made a strong case for hiving off this division which would fetch a handsome sum of over Rs 1,000 crore to Larsen. This analysis led to a fresh buying with the stock registering a historic volume of over 56 lakh shares on the NSE and 31.98 lakh shares on the BSE, which is considered as the highest in the last four years. The stock was locked at Rs 227.30 on the BSE with an outstanding buy order of 50,824 shares. Leading US-based FIIs were reported to have picked up substantial chunk of Larsenduring the first phase of the trading session. Larsen's GDR was also up by 9.07 per cent at $ 10.37.

SBI, Corp Bank in the limelight

Bank stocks continued their upward spiral with the State Bank of India (SBI) freezing again at Rs 192.90. So was Corporation Bank at Rs 93.50, Bank of Baroda at Rs 51.80 and Bank of India at Rs 24.90. Fund managers say that there is a lot of value in these stocks at current levels and a further upward movement should not be ruled out. ``Bank shares will continue to be in the limelight on sustained buying prompted by the interest rate cuts by the RBI at the beginning of the week,'' said a BSE broker. The GDR market reflected buoyancy with SBI rising by 10.1 per cent to $9.77. SBI traded 1.64 crore shares on NSE & 0.81 crore on the BSE, which are record volumes.

Philips exudes bullish signs

The stock has been going up on an average by 5-6 per cent in the last four trading sessions. ``Institutions are making an entry into this stock and the stock is expectedto shoot up to Rs 180 in the short term,''said a fund manager.

Institutional activity

Morgan Stanley has purchased 2.5 lakh shares of L&T and the Fidelity Investments is rumoured to have bought 10 lakh shares of State Bank of India. Crosby Securities is said to have bought 3.5 lakh shares of ITC and the Warburg Pinctus fund is rumoured to have bought 2.5 lakh shares of Pentafour Software.

Finally, action at ITC

The ITC stock broke it silence after a long gap of over two trading cycles. As its GDR continued to move in the northward direction to trade at $ 27.37 on Friday, the stock also moved up by over 5 per cent. While rumours spread that a leading US based fund picked up over 6 lakh shares today, a leading brokerage outfit reported three cross deals on the BSE in the price band of Rs 968 to Rs 975.50.

Reliance witnessed huge negotiated deals on the BSE on Friday. The counter registered four negotiated deals, two of 2 lakh shares each and two of 75,000 shares each. Interestingly,although sellers and buyers in each of the deal were technically different brokerage houses, they belong to the same clan, said brokers.

50 pc surge at Nirlon

Nirlon was bought on Friday by Calcutta based operators. A huge deal of 8 lakh shares was reported on the BSE today. The deal was reported at Re 1. The stock surged by 50 per cent on the local bourses to be locked at Rs 2.70 on the BSE and Rs 2.4 on the NSE.