The short positions at the Colgate counter on the Bombay Stock Exchange has risen from 1.48 lakh shares registered on August 3 to 1.55 lakh on August 4, reflecting the huge sales pressed at the counter which is currently in the no-delivery category on both the exchanges.

While the market indices continued to remain range bound on Tuesday considering the end of account trades, Colgate moved with a wider price band of Rs 8-10.

The stock opened with a gap of Rs 18 to open at Rs 217, although short covering at lower levels saw the stock trade at an intra-day's high of Rs 224 during the first phase of the session.

At the end of the trading session, the stock witnessed a selling depth of 78,660 shares on the BSE and 39,800 shares on the NSE. Selling and buyingdepth are the orders which are fed into the system but are not executed due to the closure of the trading session.

However, the buying depth continued to remain at an equal platform of 70,150 on the BSE and 25,350 shares on the National Stock Exchange. Interestingly, most analysts have also rated the stock at a lower Price to Earning ratio considering the erosion in market share at the rate of 5 per cent every year to its competitor Hindustan Lever coupled with a large equity base.

The recovery at the counter, according to market sources, came in with the news that UTI will be investing a huge part of its US-64 collections in the equity market.

"Colgate has always been identified as an institutional favourite scrip, hence the short covering and purchases despite the impact of the adverse results on the market sentiments," explained a BSE broker.

Despite the volatile movement at the market, analysts at large seem to have wiped out the stock from the list of blue chip stocks, even when the company hadannounced a bonus in 1997, which led to a sharp rise in its equity.