Whodunnit?
Market was agog with rumours that the Jane Fund was largely responsible for the sharp intra day volatility today. At least, all the circumstantial evidence seems to point in this direction. The scrips which slid sharply from the intra day high today included Infosys Technologies, Reliance and HFCL. Jane had been a buyer at all these counters in the last three months.

While delivery based selling has taken place at all these counters, the identity of the fund is yet to be confirmed.

Close to 2.5 million shares of Reliance are reported to have been dumped in the last couple of trading sessions. One of the prominent sellers at the counter has been the Cap-It-All fund. In case of Infosys Technologies, close to two lakh shares are reported to have been dumped today, while around half a million shares of HFCL are reported to have been dumped today.

Still going lower
There seems to be no let up in the selling pressure at the HLL counter. While the third quarter numbers have been disappointing to say the least, some of the players are also seeing it as an indication of where the economy is heading. A little over a million shares are reported to have been dumped today with the Skrodder Fund tipped to be among the major sellers. The Satyam Computer scrip too seems to be suffering a similar fate. Another eight lakh shares are reported to have been dumped today with Skrodder and a clutch of local funds figuring on the list of sellers.

In case of Zee Telefilms, even the most die hard fans seem to be losing faith in the stock. The scrip is still reeling under the Golden Socks fund's selling pressure, who is reported to have offloaded a big chunk last week.

Almost every fund in town is reported to be in a tearing hurry to dump whatever shares they own.

Surprise, surprise
For once, the NIIT scrip did manage to silence its critics, who have always been complaining that the company rarely lives up to its claims. Even as the rest of the software stocks struggled to sustain at higher levels, NIIT finished at the top of the gainers list. Local funds including the Coat Hari Mutual Fund were reported to have been the prominent buyers at the counter today, with a total of about 50,000 shares reported to have been mopped up.

The scrip managed to hold firm throughout the day mainly as few institutional players are now left with shares to sell at the counter.

Cap-It-All's decision to halt its purchases at the Castrol counter was severely felt with the scrip crashing heavily today. The fund is reported to have been accumulating small chunks till last week. But seeing the response that market outperformers have been receiving, Cap-It-All seems to have halted his purchases for the time being.

Santosh Nair(email: santoshnair@myiris.com)