Delivery in Sensex stocks slips

A decline of 350 points in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex and net sale of Rs 1,024 crore by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in April have dealt a severe blow to deliveries on the BSE as well as the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Almost 80 per cent of the Sensex stocks lost delivery volumes in April. Non-Sensex stocks, too, were punished, with 45 per cent of them witnessing a fall in delivery volumes in April.

Deliveries in the BSE Sensex fell by 10.8 per cent, with gross deliveries of the 30 Sensex stocks falling to 29.9 per cent of the total traded volume in April against 40.8 per cent in March.

The dip in deliveries implies a lack of confidence by investors in the direction of the market. In absolute terms, the deliveries in the Sensex stocks dipped by 48.5 per cent to 280 million shares in April 2005 from 545 million in March 2005.

The deliveries in non-Sensex stocks, including mid-caps, showed a sharp decline. The gross deliveries in non-Sensex stocks fell by a hefty 45.4 per cent -- from 5,550 million shares in March to 3,029 million in April 2005.

However, the aggregate trading volume in these stocks was down by 43.2 per cent and deliveries, as a share of the total traded volume, declined from 42.7 per cent in March to 41 per cent in April 2005.

Delivery data for April 2005 reveal that the FIIs were delivery-based sellers, while local mutual funds were delivery-based buyers.

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 990 crore, while mutual funds purchased Rs 1,253 crore of equities.

The FII turnover fell 40.3 per cent from Rs 47,791 crore in March to Rs 28,534 crore in April. The FIIs made delivery-based selling of Rs 14,762 crore and delivery-based buying of Rs 13,772 crore in April.

The turnover of local mutual funds also fell by 45.3 per cent from Rs 11,258 crore in March to Rs 6,164 crore in April. These funds purchased shares worth Rs 3,708 crore and sold shares worth Rs 2,456 crore in April.

Among sensex stocks, deliveries in the Bharti Tele-Ventures counter saw the largest decline of 44.6 per cent. The delivery volume of this stock fell from 82.3 per cent of the total traded volume in March to 37.7 per cent in April. Likewise, the delivery volume dropped by 32.3 per cent in HDFC Bank in April. HDFC Bank's deliveries trade fell from 82.2 per cent in March to 49.9 per cent in April.

Deliveries were down in Gujarat Ambujat Cement by 12.2 per cent, followed by Zee Telefilms (9.8 per cent), Satyam Computer (8.6 per cent), BHEL (7.3 per cent), Hero Honda (6.5 per cent), Reliance Industries (6.3 per cent), Tata Power (5.2 per cent) and Tata Steel (5.1 per cent).