Open market share buying slows

Lull on bourses seems to have affected investors.

Promoters, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and individual investors have substantially slowed down their open market buying of shares in March.

Their declarations to the stock exchanges of their buying shares from the open market under Sebi's insider trading regulation, 2002, shows that they have substantially decreased their buying from the market.

Between March 1 and March 23, promoters, FIIs and individual investors purchased 9.17 million shares from the market at an aggregate value of Rs 34 crore. In contrast, open market purchases in February were 31.79 million shares valued at Rs 266.65 crore. In January, too, it was a much higher level of 14.85 million shares, valued at Rs 151.96 crore.

The lack of buying interest by these investors is prompted by end-of-account considerations, says a BSE broker. Promoters normally stay away from the markets during account closing months while individual investors steer clear on account of tax implications. Stock market financiers, too, are unwilling to lend money to finance share buying when the market is in a bear mode, says a broker.

The promoters of Nicco Park and Resorts bought 2.93 million shares from the market at an estimated value of Rs 3.96 crore. Y C Deveshwar, chairman and managing director of ITC, acquired 16,616 shares of the company on March 15. These shares are valued at Rs 1.77 crore.

In February 2004, the major open market acquisition was by Allmanda Investments, a foreign institutional investor that bought 3.41 million shares of ICICI Bank for Rs 105 crore. During the month, Archisha Investment purchased 3.3 million shares of Uttam Steel for Rs 5.01 crore.

HSBC Financial Services acquired 619,000 shares of Sterling Biotech for Rs 7.43 crore. HSBC Global Investment Funds acquired 5.55 million shares of HCL Infosystems for Rs 28 crore.