Pharmaceutical shares have started slowing down, largely on profit booking at higher levels. Leading pharma heavyweights like Novartis, Glaxo and Ranbaxy Laboratories were weak. Even others like Wockhardt, E Merck, Parke Davis and Pfizer were weak on profit booking at higher levels. Players opine that the the trends in the pharmaceutical shares are mixed. Second line pharma counters on the other hand gained strength. Krebs Biotechnology zoomed up to touch the upper circuit at Rs 137.95 up from its previous close of Rs 127.75. Similarly, Orchid Biochemicals jumped to touch the upper circuit at Rs 149.55 up from its previous close of Rs 138.50.

Satyam leads software stocks

Software shares bounced back, led by the Satyam Computer counter. Satyam Computer crossed Rs 1500-mark to touch a high of Rs 1540 before retreating slightly on profit booking. It was also the stock with the highest turnover on the BSE at 22.88 lakh shares. Others like InfosysTechnologies and Pentafour Software also registered marginal gains over their previous closings. Mastek (Rs 1152.80) and Fujitsu ICIM (Rs 334.15) continued to hit the upper limits of the circuit breaker.

Patent push

United Phosphorus, the agrochemical company, improved further on reports of the company obtaining a US product patent for a new invention. The patent is reportedly for fumigation system for aluminium phosphide invented by its R&D team. This is the first agro-chemical company to recive an US patent. The stock moved up to touch the upper circuit at Rs 178.50 on the BSE up from its previous close of Rs 165.30. The volumes in the counter zoomed to touch 8.9 lakh up from 7.5 lakh.

Institutional deals

Capital International is rumoured to have placed an order to buy 15 lakh shares of Capital International. Schroders was rumoured to have bought MTNl and 75,000 shares of Ranbaxy, Morgan Stanley is said to have placed order to buy 25,000 shares of Ranbaxy. UTI is believed to be buyingMRF and is grapevine has it that they bought 10,000 today. In the cross deal section WI Carr did a cross deal for one lakh shares of Thermax at Rs 218.5 and of 29,200 shares of Bhel at Rs 299. Bhel was almost near the lower circuit today closing just Rs 3 above the lower circuit.