of players are believed to be in the holiday mood and, hence, the level of activity was comparatively low key. Momentum is yet to emerge and the markets continue to be in a trading zone.
The state of flux could undergo a tremendous change if big buying emerges in any of the speculative favourites. There is nothing to indicate that the same is happening but the hope is driving the bulls on the street.
Contrarians
ICICI, one of the complete players in the Indian finance landscape, is seeing an interesting bout of action. While ICICI saw offloading of half a million shares emanating from Mr Exit, buying of an equal measure emerged from Cap-it-all. The scrip weakened partially, indicating the absence of buying interest. This more or less sums up the prevailing atmosphere at the bourses. While a few bulls are confident of a revival there is selling emerging vindicating the belief that in order to break out either way, a big event is needed.
Buying interest ?
A strong bout of buying emerged in select technology majors as the day progressed yesterday.Satyam Computer witnessed an upturn in sentiments on the back of institutional buying of close to a million shares. Zee Telefilms was another counter to witness a move upwards, but whether it was the result of short covering or genuine buying interest could not be confirmed.
During the latter part of last week, Great Eastern Shipping, which had being languishing, witnesssed buying of a million shares emanating from Dutch Brokerage.
Selling pressure
With the long distance telephony market opening up , the relative attraction of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has suffered another jolt, if the action in the scrip is taken into account for. Further selling of a couple of lakhs shares was reported in the scrip yesterday.
After emerging as a safe bet in the medium term, Hindustan Lever has also wilted under the selling pressure towards the end of last week. Among the sellers were a host of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) including the likes of Uncle Jam, Clean Son, PN Brokerage and Numero Uno.
Anticipation front
With no event of any significance having happened on the economic front, it has being political events ruling the roost of late. While broking outfits like Uncle Jam have set optimistic targets, the vast section of market participants have yet to display action which would provide justification for such beliefs.
In the absence of a strong semblance of equilibrium on the ICE front, Old Economy giants piggy ride on buying interest for a few days only to do a U-turn subsequently.
Basket buyer
There is reported to be a buyer at Jordan Broking who was interested in lapping up a basket of securities. The identity of the client could not be confirmed but he is reported to have been pretty impressed by the selling efforts of the Jordan team. What could be confirmed however was the buying in Dr Reddy's Laboratories for half a lakh shares by the FII brokerage house. With a strong research base, the scrip has being considered a safe bet on the valuation front also in the rapidly changing business environment.
Wait and Watch policy
Many players, who provide momentum in normal times, are believed to be adopting a wait and watch policy for the movement. Having seen a lot of fluctuation, they are yet to develop the confidence to commit funds in a way which would reflect a high level of optimism. However the trend for the past month and more has being to utilise every rise to book profits or cut one's losses. As a result a trend is yet to emerge and, hence, the caution.
