Today's downtrend should not have come as a major surprise, especially now that Nasdaq has almost become the official benchmark. But perhaps there is a positive way of looking at the wholeaffair. If it is the uncertainty over the outcome of the Presidential pollsthat is dampening sentiment, it could not get worse than this perhaps. Afterall, one of the two is sure to be elected president.Cement story
Tech stocks might have been splattered in red today, but that definitely didnot deter the bravehearts from going ahead with their purchases at othercounters.
Close to a million shares of ACC is reported to have been picked up todaywith the Cane Bank Off Shore Fund alias Indo Camera Fund figuring among theprominent buyers. The Prudent Fund too is reported to have been a buyer atthe counter, though the exact quantum could not be confirmed. Last week, aUK based fund had picked up a significant chunk of stock through theparticipatory notes route. Few players would have been impressed by AC'ssecond quarter numbers, although the losses were not as bad as expected.
Also, many players have been expressing sceptism about the overall cementofftake numbers for October, which comes immediately after the monsoon.
Rumours of an open offer have been doing the rounds at the counter for quitesome time now. Whatever may be the reasons, the counter sure is attracting alot of attention.
No hope?
Outstanding position at the Zee Telefilms has been steadily going up overthe last few weeks. This clearly indicates that even the most loyalfollowers of the stocks are in no mood to play the saviour at the counter.
This holds true for the One Man Army too, who in his typical style slips outof most of the counters unnoticed.
Net long position on the BSE went up by another 10 lakh shares today,pushing the net oustanding position at the counter to a whopping 66 lakhshares. At least half this quantity has to be picked up for delivery, if theslide has to be checked. Of course, one cannot rule out "sudden" buyinginterest emerging in times of crises. Just a couple of weeks back, Satyamhad managed to stage a strong rebound on the back of such buying interest.
Daddy deals
Big Daddy is reported to have been one of the prominent sellers at theInfosys Technologies counter today. All the hard work done by the Say Yes IfBe brokerage over the last week seems to have been wiped out in the last twotrading sessions.
Trivia
Net long position at the MTNL counter on the BSE dropped by about 6 lakhshares today to 7.43 lakh shares, indicating sustained buying interest atlower levels. Seems difficult to believe that just about 45 days back, netoustanding position at the counter was in the range of about a crore ofshares.
There was a net short position of about 30,000 shares at the Dr Reddycounter. Above average volumes were witnessed at the counter today(nearly 3lakh shares on both exchanges combined) which could also indicate buyinginterest at lower levels. Point to be noted is that, despite twice thisamount of short positions at the counter last week, prices have not reallygone anywhere.
On a comeback trail?
The perpetual bull at the Satyam Computer counter, the Emerging Operator nowseems to be willing to taking a flexible view as far as this stock isconsidered. Having caught the upmove at the right time last week, the bullis reported to have booked his profits and now taken a reverse position atthe counter.
Santosh Nair(email:santoshnair@myiris.com)
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.