According to market sources, Barings was reported to have bought huge chunks of DSQ Software. Local institutions like UTI, LIC and select mutual funds were reported to have placed buy orders at the counters of Novartis, ITC, Nalco, Hoechst Marrion, HPCL, BPCL, EIH, Tata Power and Andhra Valley.

However they were also reported to have sold at the counters of Assam Frontier, Raymond and Nocil. Local institutions were net sellers on the BSE to the tune of Rs 2 crore, while on the NSE they bought stocks worth Rs 11 crore.

BPCL (on the NSE's trade-to-trade segment) registered a huge negotiated deal of 2.47 lakh shares at a price of Rs 267, premium of Rs 1 over the equity segment price of Rs 266. FIIs also made select purchases at the counters of Pentafour Communications and Sierra Optima, which moved up by over 8 per cent to be locked at Rs 123.80 and Rs 184.90, respectively. Openheimer Fund was reported to have bought at the Sierra Optima counter. However, they continued to be net sellers to the tune of Rs 36 crore on both the exchanges. Morgan Stanley was rumoured to have sold huge chunks of MTNL. The scrip is currently traded in the no-delivery phase of the BSE.

Mirroring the institutional buying interest, Novartis witnessed a sharp rise of 8 per cent to touch the upper end of the price band at Rs 523.50.

However, profit booking towards the second phase saw the stock close at Rs 517, registering a net gain of over 6 per cent. While market attributed the renewed interest to the sound fundamentals of the pharma industry, a section of the players also indicated the rising participation of big-time brokers on the local bourses.

Other pharma stocks like Knoll Pharma, German Remedies, Dr Reddy's, Pfizer, Wyeth Labs, Rhone Poulenc, P&G and Burroughs Welcome continued their upward stride for the second consecutive day. The E Merck counter, however, registered substantial price erosion towards the second phase on account of profit-booking. Select pharma stocks like Fullford, FDC, Abbott Labs, which are traded in the non-specified section of the BSE, were locked on the upper limit of the price band. Interestingly, stocks like Thermax, Dabur and Brittannia, which had attracted high backwardation on the BSE at the carry forward session on Saturday, registered a smart recovery on the local bourses today. While Thermax was locked at the upper limit at Rs 210.50 on the NSE despite the fact yesterday was the last day of the trading cycle, Brittannia and Dabur moved up by over 3 per cent on an average.