The auction session held at the NSE on Wednesday saw several stocks being auctioned at a hefty premium to the market price. HPCL for instance witnessed an auction of 76,000 shares at Rs 267 while the market price was Rs 245. This huge auction, according to brokers, was on account of the failure of operators to cut their short positions.

The short positions on the BSE has consistenly been above Rs 500 crore mark for the past few sessions. Similarly, stocks like Larsen, Century Textiles, Raymond Woollen and VXL Instruments also registered huge auction volumes. Raymond witnessed an auction volume of 40,000 shares at Rs 97.35 while the market price was Rs 93. VXL Instruments, which is often referred to as an operator driven stock also witnessed an auction volume of 4,400 shares at Rs 130, a premium of Rs 10 over the market price. Crompton Greaves witnessed an auction volume of 25,000 shares at Rs 45 as against the market price of Rs 40.

NSE relaxes price bandof ICICI

Dividend adjustments at the counter of ICICI saw the stock shed 11.86 per cent on the National Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The stock closed at Rs 61.70 in the ex-dividend scenario. According to brokers, the exchange relaxed the price band of ICICI temporarily (for a day) to allow price adjustment in the light of the market forces. The final adjustment of Rs 5.50 (dividend payout) saw the counter close at Rs 61.70 after touching an intra-day's high of Rs 65.95.

FII interest

Although FIIs were reportedly net sellers to the tune of Rs 57 crore on Tuesday, on Wednesday they were rumoured to have made fresh purchases at the counters of Reliance, ACC, Ashok Leyland, Reckitt & Colmann, Tisco and Ranbaxy Laboratory. According to market sources, Morgan Broking has re-rated Reliance at Rs 225 as a good buy. However, it could not be confirmed. In the light of the re-rating at the counter by Morgan and various other FII brokerage houses, brokers expect the price to touch a high of Rs 350 levelsin the next few trading sessions. Similar buying interest was talked about at the counter of ACC and SBI. FIIs like Openheimer and Alliance Capital were rumoured to have bought huge chunks of Colgate, Lakme and HLL.

Institutional deals

Huge institutional deals were reported at the counters of ACC, Bhel, Burroughs Welcome, Cipla, Hindustan Lever, Hero Honda, Indian Hotel, Infosys Technologies, Leading Edge and PSI Data Systems. FII brokerage firms like HSBC Securities, Jardine and Kotak Securities reported phenomenal cross deals at the counters of Bhel, ACC, VSNL and Leading Edge.

Contributed by Nalini D'Souza