Hamara Bajaj
You just could not have beat Bajaj Auto on Monday, which was racing ahead at top gear. Disappointing Q3 numbers seem to have been forgotten and the market seemed willing to share chairman Rahul Bajaj's confidence. In a section of the press, Bajaj had said that BAL's profits for this year would be better than that of competitors. A little over 3 lakh shares are reported to have been picked up on Monday with the Why Care brokerage reported to be one of the prominent executors. Bihari(Patnam), Pioneer and Tumble Ton were reported to have been among the prominent buyers last week. The identity of Monday's buyer is yet to be confirmed.

The contrarians
Jordan Flaming AMC is reported to have been among the biggest buyers at the Reliance Petro counter which institutional buying interest to the tune of nearly 15 lakh shares. The fund has been a regular buyer at the counter over the last few months even as the prices have been moving in a narrow range. Media reports of flat petro product sales for the last 9 months did not deter Jordan. Earlier, Jordan is reported to have picked up between 12-15 lakh shares at the Zee Telefilms counter on Friday, even as market is speculating about the presence of other players too. On the same day, he is also reported to have picked up close to 5 lakh shares of Global Telesystems, another stock which suddenly seems to have fallen from grace.

Meanwhile the Global brokerage, which loves to flaunt its contrarian image, seems to have taken a liking for the stock. One does not know if it is a trading call or an investment call. Incidentally the same brokerage had taken called for a sell on the stock at Rs 1,000 levels in May last year, predicting that it would fall to Rs 500 levels.

Trivia
Uncle Sam is reported to be regularly accumulating shares of SBI in chunks of 1-2 lakh shares. Close to 4 lakh shares are reported to have been picked up on Monday with Sam tipped to have been one of the prominent buyers. Well, the much touted VRS scheme announced by the bank is believed to have evoked an `overwhelming' response, threatening to deplete the organisation of much needed efficient man power.

Close to 2 lakh shares of Wipro were reported to have been offloaded on Monday by an institutional player with all fingers pointing at Uncle Sam. The queue of buyers at the L&T counter seem to be growing longer by the day. Already, Prudent Fund, Jordan Flaming AMC, HS Busy AMC, Abu Dubai and the Savvy Fund Manager are reported to be regular buyers over the last week. On Monday also, a little over 5 lakh shares are reported to have been picked up. The Dutch brokerage is reported to have been a seller at the VisualSoft counter to the tune of about 60,000 shares.

Santosh Nair
santoshnair@myiris.com