Even as most of the deals at the Telco's counter both on March 23 and March 24 happened to be reported by domestic brokerage outfits, the market was agog with rumours that the stock has been picked up on behalf of Morgan's Asset Management Company. However, it could not be confirmed. Based on these observations, the market speculates Morgan's holding in the company touched a high of 55 lakh share. Interestingly, these deals prompted the stock to register a spurt from Rs 169 level to be locked at Rs 180.90 on the National Stock Exchange within a span of 10 minutes during the post closing session on March 23.

Marking the entry of institutional participation at this counter on the BSE's negotiated segment, the stock witnessed cross deals of a little over 5 lakh shares spilt upinto five deals reported by different brokers (which also include certain veteran BSE brokers who are supposedly institutional brokers). Besides Telco, market was agog with rumours that Morgan Broking has also bought at the counters of Tata Tea, ACC and MTNL.

Incidentally, Telco along with 32 other stocks is entering into the compulsory demat trading phase on BSE from March 29. This, according to brokers, has been another reason for the stock price to ride high within such a short span of time. Besides Morgan, market was also agog with rumours that Capital International has also picked up considerable chunk of these stocks. Whose is providing the supply? This aspect of the story seems to be the most important missing link in the whole drama of Telco and its favourite broker Morgan.

Another story making the rounds was that of FIIs liquidating a considerable chunk of their holding in IT companies. According to highly placed sources in Sebi, a leading US-based FII has sold over 5 lakh shares of Infosys whichsaw the stock fall below Rs 3,000-level. However, these deals according to sources have yet not been reported by the broking outfit as the FII is awaiting the final nod from its headquarters. Similarly, Satyam Computers also witnessed constant bouts of sales. Capital International is rumoured to have sold huge chunks of Satyam at Rs 1,600 level. Another UK-based FII sold nearly 2 lakh shares of Satyam on Thursday on NSE bringing the stock down to a low of Rs 1,397-level.

It is learnt that while the constant appreciation in the prices of IT stocks has helped the FIIs earn quick returns from the Indian markets, their exposure in the IT sector has crossed the permissible levels of 25 per cent. Hence, they need to liquidate a considerable chunk of their holdings in these companies. Similar sell off was witnessed at the counters of DSQ Software, Zee Telefilms and Pentafour Software.

Some of the other important FII deals were registered at the counters of MTNL, BHEL and Bata India. While MTNL witnessed a singlecross deal of 4.40 lakh shares reported by CSFB, the deal at the counters of 4.19 lakh shares of BHEL was reported by WI Carr and SSKI reported a deal of 22,000 shares at the counter of Bata India. Credit Lyonnais reported a huge deal of over 5.40 lakh shares at the counter of Kesoram Industries. Interestingly, most of these stocks are entering into the compulsory demat list on March 29 on the BSE.

Other stray FII deal was reported at the counters of Gail, Pentafour Software, Larsen and Aurobindo Pharma. Domestic institutions were rumoured to have placed huge buy orders at the counters of TVS Suzuki and Visual Software.

Domestic institutions were the silent followers of FIIs, said a veteran broker in the light of UTI's deals at the counters of ITC and Satyam Computers. According to market sources, UTI has sold over 25,000 shares at the counter of Satyam Computers and over 1.5 lakh shares at the counter of ITC.

Another interesting feature of the week was the huge demat auctions at the counters of Castroland Gujarat Ambuja. Both these stocks witnessed huge auctions at a premium of over 8 per cent to the closing price on the NSE. The auction was conducted on March 24 at the NSE. According to market sources, this auction was purely on account of the failure of leading FII institutions to provide demat stocks during the pay-out.