Belligerent builders and disappointing offtake numbers for December has certainly not affected the sentiment for cement stocks. And the biggest surprise was the latest quarterly numbers from ACC, which managed to turn in an impressive performance on the back of better realisations. The big question so far was whether the Q3 earnings number would reflect the successive prices hike. And now that one company has showed the way, expectations are running high as far as the other players in the sector are concerned.Local biggies
More than foreign funds, it is our very own local institutional players who are largely responsible for the latest rally at the cement counters.Prudent Fund and Savvy Fund Manager are reported to have aggressively bought into the Grasim and L&T counters. Among market makers, the e-NAME brokerage is reported to be most active participant at the Grasim Industries counter. The firm has always had a soft corner for cement stocks among other value plays, and this time around it has managed to get players to share its conviction on the stock. The firm is reported to created a position of close to 2 million shares at the Grasim counter and managed to sustain the stock even in the face of sustained institutional selling till a few weeks back.
Pulling at Zee? The sharp spurt in the price of Zee Telefilms seems to have tempted some of the cautious players to partially book profits. On Tuesday, close to 1.5 million shares are reported to have been picked up with the Jordan Flaming AMC and Savvy Fund Manager reported to be among the prominent buyers. On Wednesday also, there is reported to have been some scattered buying interest at the counter.
But the purchases were not good enough to help the scrip brave the onslaught of profit-takers. There has not been any overnight change in fundamentals, but if the price rises by another few rupees, a section of fence-sitters might be tempted to join in. And then of course, a new story could be scripted. But in case prices slip, it could trigger off another exodus. So the jockey operating the stock has to play his cards carefully.
Not impressed
NIIT's growth rate for the first quarter was not good enough to impress a section of players, who aggressively booked profits at the counter on Wednesday. A little over a lakh of shares were reported to have been offloaded on Wednesday with circumstantial evidence pointing towards the Savvy Fund Manager, a close follower of the stock. But the same is yet to be confirmed.
On the side
Second line stocks once again roared into action with frenzied buying interest witnessed at counters like Century Textile, Kesoram Industries, Atlas Copco, Supreme Industries, just to name a few.
The general feeling in the rally is that the cement rally could lose steam any moment now, with the last positive news (Q3 numbers) just around the corner. And with technology stocks still giving conflicting signals, players seem to be looking for safe bets to see them through any intermediate correction phase.
Santosh Nairsantoshnair@myiris.com
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
