Heard on the Street

Mid-cap IT stocks sizzle ahead of Q1 results

Shares of mid-cap software companies have been in the thick of activity in line with the buzz in the broader market in recent sessions. Shares of Rolta India, which have risen around 12% in a month, closed at Rs 183.80, up 4.83% on Monday. According to dealers, foreign institutions are buying the stock ahead of the quarterly results. Some are betting on good April-June quarter numbers driven by a healthy order book. These apart, there is also talk that Pink Panther is active in the stock and has been instrumental in whipping up volumes. According to grapevine, this operator’s bets are not limited to Rolta.

He is rumoured to be active in Mphasis, which has seen a slight rise of late on speculation of a de-listing. According to grapevine, Pink Panther is again active in Mahindra Satyam.

OMC stocks skid as FIs make tidy profits

Shares of oil upstream and marketing companies were under selling pressure on Monday on profit-booking by domestic institutions and mutual funds in some of the stocks. According to dealers, Big Daddy of insurance companies was a seller in BPCL and ONGC, as it had made a tidy profit having purchased them in huge quantities at different levels around a month ago before the partial deregulation of fuel prices was announced. Brokers said many mutual funds have also made decent returns from these stocks and are now booking profits. The Rar(e)ing Bull and Old Fox were among the others who had made a killing in the recent rally in oil shares. Analysts said most of the positives seem to have been factored in at current levels and they do not expect any significant upmove from the current levels in the short term.

Infra co’s charm offensive fails to win over analysts

A leading power and infrastructure company is inviting market participants, including fund managers and analysts, for a plant visit. Market sources said brokers, on behalf of the company, are asking fund managers on whether they are interested in the plant visit. But, many fund managers do not seem to be keen. A fund manager said, “Its execution capabilities have always been suspect... Also, I am not going to take a decision on investing in the company based on this visit, with its stock quite expensive at the moment.”

Domestic funds queue up for Tata Power

Shares of Tata Power are seeing buying interest from mutual funds at lower levels. With the stock falling from its peak of over Rs 1,500 in January to Rs 1,200 last month many domestic mutual funds have once again started eyeing the stock. Dealers say there is a lot of demand from fund houses for a large chunk of the stock. But at the moment, there are no block sellers.

Contributed by Harish Rao, Nishanth Vasudevan & Apurv Gupta