Indian stocks suffer a Bear Stearns hug

Bear Stearns, which was registered as a foreign institutional investor in 2004, sold an additional 40.2 million shares valued at Rs 677 crore on the National Stock Exchange today, taking its total sales to Rs 943 crore in the last two days.

Since January 2008, Bear Stearns has sold shares worth Rs 342 crore in the open market. Which means the company's total sale in the Indian markets is worth Rs 1,285 crore in the current calendar year.

Bear Stearns' India portfolio is currently worth around Rs 2,000 crore on the basis of its more than one per cent holding in 86 companies.

The top four companies in the company's portfolio in terms of market value as on December 31, 2007 were Jaiprakash Associates, Opto Circuit, Havells India and Madhucon Project.

Bear Stearns today sold the shares of Aptech, CCL Products, Usha Martin, Sterlite Technologies, Orchid Chemicals, Monnet Ispat, MIC Electronics, Man Industries, JSW Steel, GTL, CCL Products and Dredging Corporation through block deals on the National Stock Exchange.

It sold its entire holding in Megasoft (1.74 million), Northgate Technologies (0.8 million), Paramount Communications (3.67 million) and Usha Martin (5.97 million) today. In K S Oil, it sold 9.47 million equity shares (more than 90 per cent of its holdings) in a single day.