Interestingly, both local institutions and FIIs were net sellers on the BSE which shows that the spurt in indices was mainly driven by speculative trading, centred around traditional heavyweights. The institutional investors were, however, net buyers on the NSE. On the BSE, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 11 crore, while domestic institutions were net sellers to the extent of Rs 20 crore. On the NSE, domestic institutions were net buyers to the tune of Rs 8 crore, while FIIs bought stocks worth Rs33 crore.

``Market was awaiting a trigger point either ways,'' explained a veteran BSE broker, in the light of the index movement sideways during the past few trading sessions.

The news of the US sanctions being eased led to a smart recovery in the prices of stocks related to power and financial institutions. Leading FI representatives, IDBI and ICICI hit the upper end of the price band on the local bourses, while power representatives like Bhel and ABB shot up by over 8 per cent during the session. Reliance once again emerged as the top traded stock with over 2.8 crore shares exchanging hands on the local bourses with the stock touching an intra-day high of Rs 125.60.

According to market sources, FIIs were rumoured to have placed huge buy orders at the select front line counters like Colgate, Bhel, Gujarat Ambuja, Larsen, Castrol, TVS Suzuki, Ranbaxy and Glaxo. Sources spelled the names of Morgan Stanley and Government of Singapore among the FIIs who played a vital role in revitalising certain deadcounters like ICICI and Bhel.

However, domestic institutions like UTI and SBI Mutual Fund continued to book profits at select counters like Cochin Refinery, ITC and Satyam Computers. Interestingly, the pharma and info-tech counters failed to participate in the rally which was triggered by the buy back and the waiving of US sanctions.

``Pharma and info-tech counters were the only two sectors which provided enough scope for institutional participants to take care of their redemption pressures,'' said the chief dealer of a leading institutional brokerage house citing the various instances where IT industry stocks moved against the market tide.

Among the cement industry representatives, Gujarat Ambuja and Larsen continued to be locked at the upper limit of the price band, ACC shot up by 5 per cent to close at Rs 1,000.

Indian GDRs also participated in the rally, with GDRs of ITC, SBI, Reliance and Telco registering smart recovery of over 5 per cent during mid-day session. The news of the global merger sawboth Clariant and Ciba Speciality counters hit the upper end of the price band on the local bourses.

According to market sources, a leading Calcutta based bull was reportedly playing an active role in propping up the price of ITC. News of the Rs 300 crore buy back however led to considerable sales being pressed by domestic institutions like UTI. However, in the absence of any official word from the company to the effect that a buy back was on the cards, the stock continued to be traded in the band of Rs 716 and Rs 722. The stock closed at Rs 716.50 registering a net gain of 1.8 per cent. ``A small correction is definitely on the cards, however there is enough reason for the index to trade around 3,100 to 3,200 levels, provided it sustains the 3,000 levels,'' explained Sandeep Shah of Kotak Securities.

Figures of the institutional sales unnerved the market participants, with pivotals registering marginal decline at the kerb markets. While ITC was traded at Rs 718, SBI was traded at 163.50 and Reliance atRs 122.50 almost at the day's official close.

MNCs, IT stocks remain subdued

November 9: Overshadowed by the pivotals, most of the multinationals failed to participate in the 100-point rally on Monday. On a day of bullish undertone, most of the multinational stock were ignored as the focus shifted to index-based heavyweight domestic companies and other pivotals. Apart from pharmaceutical and FMCG stocks, information technology stocks were underperformers and failed to participate in the rally.

Among the 150-odd scrips in BSE's group A, the top 45 gainers were all Indian companies which recorded a gain of over 5.8 per cent. As many as 20 BSE group A stocks hit the upper end of the filter and attracted increased buying.

The few multinational stocks which saw some interested buying were ABB Limited, BASF Limited, Hindustan lever Chemicals, Siemens, Colgate Palmolive, Atlas Copco and Esab India, which moved up in the range of 3.4 per cent to 5.4 per cent.

Among the multinationals, the worstperformers were Glaxo (India), Smithkline Beecham Consumer, Pond's, Britannia and Ingersoll Rand which were witness to a drop in their values on Monday. Although the fall in these stocks was only marginal, these stocks failed to move up with the market.

Among the other multinational scrips, pharmaceutical and FMCG stocks like Rhone Polenc, Pfizer, German Remedies, Novartis, Cadburys, Hind Lever, Smithkline Beecham Pharma and Carrier Aircon closed the day with only marginal gains and behaved in a lacklustre way. Brokers, however, feel that these stock are likely to witness buying in the days to follow.

According to Bombay-based brokers, scrips of companies like Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Procter & Gamble, German Remedies, Pfizer and Smithkline Beecham Pharma, which intend to go for buy-back should see a spurt in the days to follow.