On Tuesday FIIs were rumoured to have sold at the counters of Larsen and Hindustan Lever. However, they continued to be buyers at the counters of MTNL, Raymonds, Tata Tea and HPCL. Rumours of a leading UK based hedge fund taking fresh exposure at the textile and refinery industry counters, however, failed to enthuse market participants.

Institutional

Morgan Stanley is rumoured to have bought 1.5 lakh shares of Mahindra & Mahindra. Morgan Stanley, Capital International and Schrodders are rumoured to have bought 8-9 lakh shares of Bank of Baroda. SBIMF is rumoured to have boughtFinolex Industries and an FII is belived to placed a buy order for 15 lakh shares. The SBI India Magnum Fund is rumoured to have bought 50,000 shares of Wartsilla Diesel. UTI is rumoured to be active in Pentafour, Satyam and Raymonds counter.

Chasing yields in GNFC

Operators and domestic institutions have once again strengthened their grip at the GNFC counter. The lure, according to brokers, is the expectation of a dividend payout of 25 per cent. Last year the company paid out a dividend of 20 per cent. According to market sources, domestic mutual funds have picked up over 2 lakh shares during the past three weeks which saw the price rise from Rs 13.5 to Rs 20.50 on May 18.

Cross deals

Among the cross deals reported on the negotiated segment of the BSE, Brittannia Industries registered a huge deal of 20,000 shares reported at Rs 1,375. The deal was reported by Credit Lyonnais. SG Asia Equities also reported a deal of 26,000 shares at the counter of ICICI Bank.

Interestingly, small cap stockslike Supreme Petro, Swojas Energy, Rain Calcining and Sun Earth Ceramics have been registering huge deals on the BSE. According to brokers, these stocks had earlier been shifted from the books of leading mutual funds into the books of select brokers in order to get rid of dud stocks which reflected on their NAVs. "A part of this chunk is nowing getting routed into the market," explained a veteran BSE broker. Reliance Petroleum counter witnessed three deals aggregating to 1 lakh shares reported at Rs 23.

Bulls call MTNL

The counter continued to be strong on sustained FII buying. According to fund managers, FIIs are of the belief that if the Indian economy has to grow then the infrastructure sector has to be spruced by the government. "In such a scenario MTNL would be the best player in the infrastructure sector with consistent revenue growth and firm revenue stream flows. The company is also expected to be in all areas of telephony", said a fund manager. The stock had been battered down to lowerlevels with persistent sales by UTI but the stock has bounced back with good amount of FII interest.

Infosys bounces back

Infosys shot up on the bourses today to close at Rs 3181.10 on the BSE and Rs 3170 on the NSE. Infosys has valued its brand which has risen phenomenally by 243 per cent over teh last year and its people value has increased by 86 per cent over the last year. "This should see the stock being rerated upwards and should see much more movement", said an analyst.

Correction in oil expected

Oil companies have been on the upper circuit for the last 15 trading sessions and the stock should see some amount of correction now. "The value of the scrips of these companies have more than doubled in the last fortnight and a correction should be seen coming in these stocks", said a fund manager. IPCL close at Rs 117.10, BPCL closed at Rs 265.60 on the upper circuit, IOC at Rs 329.35 on the upper circuit and Cochin Refinery at Rs 156.