Institutional deals

The Canbank offshore fund is rumoured to have bought 2 lakh shares of Digital Equipment. And SBI Mutual Fund is rumoured to have placed an order to buy 2 lakh shares of Nalco. It is also rumoured to have bought 50,000 shares of Thermax. Morgan Stanley and Capital International are rumoured to have bought close to 30 lakh shares of SBI. Rumours doing the rounds are that many more FIIs are rumoured to have placed huge buy orders at this counter. Morgan Stanley is rumoured to have picked up 20,000 shares of Glaxo and30,000 shares of Dr Reddy's Lab. UTI is rumoured to have sold L&T and Grasim while GIC is rumoured to have bought Indian Hotels.

Steel gets the price-hike booster

Steel stocks were firm today as reports of all major steel producers planning to hike domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices by Rs 500 a tonne from July 1 filtered in. Jindal Vijaynagar has already hiked steel prices while other steel majors like SAIL, Essar Steel, Ispat and Lloyds are likely to announce price hike shortly. ``A sharp rise in the international HRC prices seems to have triggered the move,'' said a BSE broker. According to a fund manager, the overall industry is consolidating and a revival in the steel sector should not be behind the revival in other cyclical stocks. ``Cement despatches have been picking up and action in construction industry is on the upswing,'' said a fund manager. In line with the trend, TISCO firmed up as the company is expected to give better numbers this quarter, said a BSE broker.

Back to pharmaagain

Pharma stocks were back in limelight with Ranbaxy touching the upper circuit in the morning. FIIs like Schrodders, WI Carr, Socgen Crosby, Morgan Stanley, Capital International among others, were rumoured to be active in the Ranbaxy counter. Also there were rumours that the company is on the verge of completion of clinical trials of the new molecules and the order books are expected to improve by $ 100 million. According to a fund manager, pharma stocks are offering good valuations at the current level even as most of the cyclicals have appreciated on an average by 40-100 per cent since the rally started. Ranbaxy moved up to touch Rs 593.40 on Wednesday with huge volumes of 17 lakh shares. Other pharma stocks like Pfizer, E Merck and Glaxo were also firm.

The H1B blues

Selling in the software counters continued as reports of the US imposing H1B visa restrictions on the Indians poured in. ``H1B visa implies that the professionals have to go offshore physically to develop software andprovide solutions and this will hit operations of these software companies,'' said a fund manager. Even as the market picked up activity around 1:45 pm, Satyam and Pentafour continued to fall.

--Contributed by Parul Monga and Aabhas Pandya