Just when the market was building a solid foundation for a pre-Budget rally, Friday's killer quake seems to have badly shaken the confidence of players. One does not know if this is just a mild aftershock or the beginning of a series of tremors that is likely to bring benchmark indices crashing all over again. Fund managers seem to be flush with funds at this point in time. But with with concerns being raised on the macro-economic front in the aftermath of the earthquake, these players may once again choose to go in for the safe bets, thus robbing the pre-Budget rally of its charm.Standing tall
One stock with name Gujarat in it and yet managed to escape a beating on Monday was Gujarat Ambuja Cement. The stock opened on a firm note, amidst the chaos, causing one to think that the entire cement required for the reconstruction of Gujarat would be sourced from GACL. Players who missed the bus started driving up other cement stocks in the safe belief that these stocks undoubtedly stood to gain from Friday's earthquake. But, by the end of the day, only GACL managed to cling on to its gains as the rest did not seem to have the backing of genuine buyers. Uncle Sam is reported to be one of the prominent buyers at the counter of late. On Friday, the Numero Uno brokerage is reported to have picked up close to 9.25 lakh shares, reliably on behalf of Sam.
Test drive
Small Daddy is reported to have been one of the prominent buyers at the Bajaj Auto counter on Monday, where close to two lakh shares were reported to have been picked up. The fact that an offshore fund is in the process of booking profits at the counter did not deter Daddy in the least. Among the other notable purchases, Savvy Fund Manager, along with HS Busy AMC, is reported to have picked up close to a lakh of shares of Nestle, once again pulling the stock above the Rs 500-mark. A good recovery for the stock which fell to Rs 470 levels about a week back.
Power play
Even as a sense of confusion prevailed during the day, Uncle Sam decided to make the most of it by buying into some of his favourite counters. The latest stock to catch his fancy is BSES, where he has been a regular buyer over the last couple of trading sessions, having picked up over five lakh shares so far. On Monday also, he is reported to have been a buyer at lower levels. He has already bought a decent chunk of Tata Power over the last couple of months.
Trivia
Global Telesystems managed to make a good comeback in the closing moments of the day's trading session, managing to recover some lost ground. While Cassanova Securities had recently upgraded its earnings estimates for the company, the Cross Bee brokerage is reported to have picked up close to three lakh shares on Thursday. Around 2.5 lakh shares of Punjab Tractor were reportedly dumped by a foreign pension fund on the same day. Cross Bee's purchase of about 2.5 million shares of Zee Telefilms on Thursday seems to have been offset by the company's lacklustre Q3 earnings numbers.
Santosh Nair
santoshnair@myiris.com
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
