Satyam with an equity base of just Rs 26 crore is averaging over 9,000 trades a day compared to ITC's 7,215, SBI's 6,150 and RIL's 5,892 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The top position implies that the scrip is the most popular among traders and investors in terms of liquidity. Satyam is way below in terms of market capitalisation compared to the other leaders, which to an extent dwarfs its popularity in the market. Since turnover and market cap are a function of the price of the scrip, we have looked at the volume of shares traded and the number of times they exchanged hands.

Satyam has reached this unenviable position through an astronomical rise in its trading volumes.

Consider this: Compared to a trading volume of only 10,720 shares on January 1, 1998, the turnover in the scripon Thursday stood at 36.85 lakh shares. On an average 25.11 lakh shares, which is close to a third of its floating stock, now regularly changes hands on the bourse.

In its journey to the top spot, in terms of turnover and the number of trades, the scrip has relegated ITC, SBI and RIL to the lower slots. The average daily number of trades on the Satyam counter currently stands at 9073 and regulary croses the 10,000 mark. Also the stock has appreciated from its mid-February level of Rs 158 to its Thursday close of Rs 475.

The average turnover in the Satyam scrip on BSE has seen a quantum jump during the last four months. Between January 1 and March 31, Satyam's average turnover was close to 99,000 shares. This, betweeen April 1 and August 13, shot up to a level of 25.11 lakh shares.

Although average daily volume on the Reliance counter has also risen from 47.22 lakh shares to 49.45 lakh shares, the rate of rise is much slower and is mainly attributed to heavy selling pressure on the counter. On theotherhand, average volumes in ITC and SBI have gone down substantially from 40.31 lakh and 33.58 lakh to 32.23 lakh and 29.84 lakh shares, respectively.

Compared to Reliance's Rs 931 crore, SBI's Rs 526.30 crore and ITC's Rs 245.42 crore equity bases, Satyam's equity base is only Rs 26.02 crore. Whereas the first three, respectively, have floating stocks in the range of 23.59 crore, 4.91 crore and 5.51 crore shares, Satyam has only about 78 lakh floating shares.

Despite the low level of floating stocks, the Satyam counter, on a daily basis, has witnessed 9073 trades between July 1 and August 13. The comparative figures for ITC, SBI and Reliance are 7215, 6150 and 5892 trades.

During the same period (in 32 trading sessions) whereas on 11 occassions the counter logged in more than 10,000 trades, the counters of SBI and ITC breach the 10,000 trading mark only twice and Reliance never crossed the mark.

After being listed on the BSE in 1990, the Satyam stock remained in the range of Rs 20 and Rs 50 fornearly seven years. The maiden notable spurt in the scrip was observed during April and October 1997 when it went up to Rs 184 from Rs 54. Thereafter the scrip again remained rangebound till February 1998. However, since then in less than four months the scrip appreciated from its mid-February level of Rs 158 to Rs 585 on June 1. After touching a low of Rs 277 on June 22, the scrip has again bounced back to its Thursday close of Rs 475.