Going Dutch
A good amount of institutional buying was reported at the Satyam Computer counter, which was borne by the volumes more than the prices. The Dutch brokerage is reported to have been a big buyer at the counter, accounting for most of the 1.5-2 million shares that were picked up on the day. It could not be confirmed if Dutch picked up the entire lot on behalf of a single buyer. One of the buyers at the counter on Tuesday was Golden Socks, who is also steadily buying into the HPCL stock.

Between the lines?
On the face of it, SBI's third-quarter numbers did not look all that inspiring. But Uncle Sam seems to have been sympathetic to the fact that the dip in net profits was on account on higher provisioning for NPAs and also expenses for the IMD plan. Around six lakh shares are reported to have been picked up at the counter with Uncle Sam being the most prominent buyer.

In two minds
The Castrol counter, which had not participated in the rally so far, was a beehive of activity on Tuesday. Players who fled the counter last Thursday on unconfirmed talks of the open offer being delayed, seem to have changed their mind - needless to say, once again on unconfirmed talks that the open offer could be revised upwards. After seeing the last couple of quarterly earnings numbers, few institutional players would be looking at the fundamental side of the stock. But yes, rumours centered around the open offer could be a good draw for punters.

The Busy broker
Among the first ones to stand up for a social cause, the HS Busy brokerage announced that it would be donating a day's broking commission to victims of the Gujarat earthquake. The brokerage is reported to have been one of the prominent buyers at the Ranbaxy counter where around three lakh shares are reported to have been picked up on Wednesday. Merry Lunch brokerage's bullish call on the stock seems to be forcing some of the fund managers to take a fresh look at the stock, which has been ignored ever since the Q4 results.

Trivia
Unimpressed by the merger (with UTI Bank) ratio, the Savvy Fund Manager decided to pare his holdings in Global Trust Bank, dumping close to a lakh of shares on Tuesday. Also, looks like he has taken a very serious view of the profit warning issued by global optic fibre cable major Corning. That could explain his decision to dump about three lakh shares of Sterlite Optic on Tuesday.

While Savvy has stopped his purchases at the Dr Reddy counter, Singapoori Sarkar has now swung into action over the last couple of days, buying in chunks of 30-40,000 shares. But that has not been able to check the slide in stock prices which also happen to figure on the list of sell-calls of Global brokerage. Meanwhile SS still continues to accumulate Infosys in lots of 25-50,000 shares.

Santosh Nairsantoshnair@myiris.com