Street Signs

SMART EYE

It was another classic case of 'starting with a bang and ending with a whimper.' We are talking about TCS, of course. The scrip, which was heralded into the equity markets with much fanfare, got listed at Rs 1,050, a 23.50 per cent premium to the IPO price of Rs 850.

There was also a sudden influx of 'phoren' money into the markets around the time of the listing on the back of an allotment of 2.42 crore TCS shares, worth Rs 2,057 crore, to frangipani. However, the honeymoon was rather short-lived. The scrip soon landed on earth with a thud, ending the week much lower at Rs 958 levels.

Even then, bulls were smiling for the most part, as international oil prices declined to the relief of everybody concerned. But worries of rising inflation checked any big gains.

Now, the big worry for the markets is the behaviour (or the lack of it) of truck owners. Their one-week-old strike is expected to further lift inflation, which is already at a three-and-a-half-year high.

Waking up late
Frangipani Jordan Flaming Fund is acting like a cricket team which is facing an asking run rate of 10 in a one-day match. The fund has gone berserk at the bourses last week, doing bulk deals one after the other.

Interestingly the deals have taken place at two of the recently listed counters - Petronet LNG and Power Trading Corp (PTC). The fund picked up more than 22 lakh shares of PTC at the NSE, at Rs 52.55 and then followed it up with another 10 lakhs at the BSE at Rs 52.57. Then the fund trained its guns at the Petronet counter, buying 54 lakh shares at Rs 23.90 at the NSE.

While analysts have been harping for long about the relative merits of these two scrips, Jordan apparently was none the wise for it.

Considering that PTC is presently trading at a premium of more than 230 per cent from its listing price of Rs 16 and Petronet is up 60 per cent from its debut price of Rs 14.65, one can't help feeling that Jordan may have woken up a bit too late. But the good news is that most analysts continue to be positive about the two scrips on the long term.

Riding high
Not to be outdone, frangipani Metro Group was seen buying two lakh shares of auto ancillary company Amtek Auto at Rs 510. That should surprise no one considering that the auto ancillary segment is regarded among the fastest growing sectors in the country.

According to analysts, Amtek's good financial record, established customer relationship and exciting growth prospects in both domestic and export markets in the medium term make it one of the interesting stories going around.

The company has also decided to increase the investment limit for FIIs in its equity share capital from 49 per cent to 74 per cent.

In other action...
The Bombay Dyeing counter was a beehive of activity last week. While Grand Ham Fund sold 7.8 lakh shares of the company at the BSE at Rs 143.50, Reliable Fund bought 5.9 lakh shares at Rs 142.50. Interest in textile stocks has been on the rise with the integration of the textile and apparel industry into GATT from January 2005.

Moreover, Bombay Dyeing is considered to be an attractive bet based on its textile, petrochemicals and property businesses. Reliable Fund was at it again at the Tata Elxsi counter, mopping up nearly two lakh shares of Tata Elxsi at Rs 135.83 at the NSE.