Big Bank bets big on Apollo Tyres

STREET SIGNS

The Sensex was at it again. The index closed the day at an all-time high of 8525 levels, a gain of 46 points. Not that it was a smooth ride all the way. Volatility which has marked trading in the recent past was very evident with the index moving in a range of 140 points during the day.

Big Bank buys

The Big Bank's desi fund was in action again. Following its buying at the India Cements counter, the fund was seen making purchases at the Apollo Tyres and IVRCL Infrastructures counters.

The fund is said to have bought a lakh of shares of Apollo Tyres which is currently ruling at Rs 286 levels. There have been many backers of the stock of late, Khandala Securities being one of them.

According to the brokerage, Apollo Tyres is slated to grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent over the next three years through a combination of organic and inorganic growth. It has also put a 12-month price target of Rs 375 on the stock. Now, Big Bank fund¿s other buying was the infrastructure stock, IVRCL Infrastructures.

Now, this is an interesting case where the stock actually looks to be on a downtrend after running up from Rs 492 at the beginning of July to Rs 845 at the end of August.

Castro gets power

Castro Fund and Swiss Fund were involved in a deal at the HBL Nife Power Systems counter. Castro bought nearly a lakh of shares from Swiss Fund, thus increasing its holding in the company which stood at 5.50 per cent before the deal.

The Hyderabad-based HBL Nife Power Systems is one of the leaders in the field of specialised batteries and energy solutions. The company is setting up a greenfield manufacturing unit at Visakhapatnam special economic zone in Andhra Pradesh.

The stock has seen plenty of action of late and has surged from Rs 160 levels three months back to Rs 240 levels currently. The appreciation in the stock price over the past one year amounts to a whopping 320 per cent.

No visual appeal

After a flurry of buying activity, sellers resurfaced again at the VisualSoft Technologies counter. Reliable Fund sold more than 3.4 lakh shares at the counter at Rs 211 levels.

Will this lead to other biggies also offloading their stock remains to be seen. Apart from Reliable Fund, Prudent Fund was also a buyer at the counter in mid-September.

Close on the heels of Softbank of Japan acquiring a 14 per cent stake in the company, Metro Fund had made some purchases at the counter, increasing its share to 5.80 per cent in the company. And nearly a fortnight after that another biggy Uncle Sam bought 2.5 lakh shares at Rs 212 levels.

Speaking of Metro Fund, it sold some four lakh shares at Satnam Overseas counter. The fund had bought some Satnam shares way back in February at Rs 119.04. Considering that the stock has since declined to below Rs 100 levels, Metro seems to have got this one wrong.