Midcaps giving blue chips the volume chill

After outperforming the blue-chip league in terms of appreciation in prices, mid-cap stocks are gaining ground in the volumes game too. The front-line stocks or blue chips, forming A group stocks of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), are now slipping in the volumes game.

The average daily turnover of A group stocks has declined 20 per cent (Rs 300 crore a day) in September so far compared to the daily average turnover in August 2004.

On the other hand, average daily turnover of B1 and B group stocks has jumped 39 per cent (Rs 100 crore a day) in the current month.

The major loser in the volumes game were most-traded stocks such as TCS, Reliance Industries, Infosys Technologies, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bharti Tele-Ventures, ONGC, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Wipro and ACC. The daily turnover of these A-group stocks has declined over 30 per cent in the current month.

The drop in daily turnover of A group stocks has also led to a decline in the market share of A group stocks in the total turnover on the BSE.

The market share of A group stocks in total BSE turnover declined from 86 per cent in August to 78 per cent in the current month. In June, the A group stocks accounted for 94 per cent of the market turnover and 89 per cent in July.

However, during the period, the share of B1 group stocks in the total BSE turnover increase from 5.36 per cent in June to 10.28 per cent in July.

In August, the share of B1 group stocks climbed to 13 per cent and further to almost 20 per cent in current month. The B group stocks, which accounted for a mere 0.55 per cent share in June, now account for 2.38 per cent share of the total BSE turnover.

Mid-cap stocks which climbed the volumes ladder are PTC India, Hindustan Oil Exploration Company, Arvind Products, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), JK Synthetics, McDowell & Co, SB&T International, GSFC, Jain Irrigation Systems, Financial Technologies and Williamson Tea. All these stocks showed more than 100 per cent jump in daily turnover in September over levels in August.

The average daily turnover on the Arvind Products counter increased from just Rs 18 lakh in August to Rs 6 crore in the current month.

In Andhra Petrochemicals, the daily average turnover increased from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 1.53 crore in September. JK Synthetics to Rs 4.08 crore (Rs 84 lakh), Financial Technologies to Rs 2.86 crore (Rs 56 lakh), Williamson Tea to Rs 2.24 crore (Rs 37 lakh) and PTC India to Rs 12.22 crore (Rs 4.65 crore).

On the other hand, the average daily turnover of Reliance scrip declined from Rs 133 crore in August to Rs 87 crore in September. Tata Steel scrip's daily turnover dropped from Rs 116 crore to Rs 51 crore, Bharti Tele-Ventures to Rs 8 crore (Rs 69 crore), Tata Motors to Rs 56 crore (Rs 102 crore), ONGC to Rs 26 crore (Rs 56 crore), HPCL to Rs 7 crore (Rs 13 crore) and Gujarat Ambuja Cement to Rs 7 crore (Rs 12 crore).