The conditions were favourable yesterday for the bears to firm their grip on the bourses. Low badla rates often give a comfortable position to the operators to build fresh positions. Perhaps, the small-time speculators were caught unawares with markets falling all round the globe. This saw bear operators building fresh short positions at key pivotals.
A look at the outstanding position at the BSE indicates that operators have gone short. The short positions at the end of yesterday's trading stood at Rs 238.96 crore as against Friday's levels of Rs 175 crore, indicating that a bearish sentiment prevails at the bourses.
The long positions marginally moved up to Rs 643 crore from Friday's levels of Rs 634 crore. It seems that marketmen have not taken kindly to ITC's first-quarter results if one were to go by the short position created at this counter. The short position at this counter has leaped significantly to Rs 323 crore yesterday from a low of Rs 89 crore on Friday. As against this, the long position has marginally moved to Rs 504 compared to Rs 315 crore as on Friday.
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If the bearish conditions prevail then it is likely that ITC may be hammered further by operators. However, if there is any change in sentiment short-sellers would have a tough time, considering that this counter has traditionally been guarded by a godfather. So, short-sellers, beware, anything below Rs 600 for this stock could result in the man himself coming to the rescue.
A leading domestic fund is reported to very disappointed with ITC results. It is reported to have sold around 3 lakh shares of the scrip on Friday. Yesterday too it was reported to be an aggressive seller at the counter. The fund is believed to have sold around 3.5 lakh shares yesterday, causing the scrip to fall above the Rs 600-mark on the BSE.
The same fund is reported to have been a seller at the L&T counter too having sold close to a lakh shares yesterday.
Among the other stocks, the foreign funds were reported to be scouting for Tata Power stock, though the stock price movement does not reflect this. It is reported that the SBI MF picked up close to one lakh shares of Satyam Computers. With the FII investment at this counter touching the 30 per cent limit, SBI MF's purchase would have come as a great relief for operators who were holding this stock.
The HPCL and BPCL scrip continued to figure on the dumping list of a foreign fund, which has been a seller at the counter throughout the last week. Both the scrips crashed to new 52-week lows on the NSE during intra-day trading. Another scrip on the FII sell list which crashed to a new 52-week low yesterday in the absence of FI support was M&M.
The Zee Telefilms scrip also figured on the FII sell list yesterday, though the quantity could not be confirmed.
Even in a falling market, the MTNL scrip witnessed FII buying interest. The sub-account of a leading UK-based fund is reported to have made purchases at the counter, though the quantities could not be confirmed. The same fund is reported to have made purchases at the counter on Friday too.
Bargain Hunting
A leading US-based fund is reported to have purchased around 21 lakh shares of the Nalco scrip on Friday. Yesterday too the scrip edged up in a falling market, with 1.58 lakh shares of the scrip being traded on the NSE yesterday.
The Hitech Drilling scrip too figured on the gainers list yesterday. A leading BSE brokerage which also has a merchant banking arm is reported to have made purchases at the counter yesterday.
Speculative activity at the Industrial Oxygen counter continued abated with the scrip vaulting to a new 52-week high yesterday. Players said that speculation could be an indicator of the date of the approaching anticipated 'open offer'.