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THE continuous fall in the share price of HCL Technologies in the last few days came to a halt on Friday. The stock gained 2.92 per cent at Rs 179.50 on the BSE with volumes of 4.74 lakh shares. On the NSE, the stock gained 2.85 per cent at Rs 180.30 with volumes of 14.51 lakh shares.

Dealers said the stock had been falling due to a FII (based at Gulf) selling the shares. The FII is believed to have sold most of its holding by Thursday and this led to the reversal of trend in the share price. With sales abating, volumes in the counter also dipped. Some domestic financial institutions are understood to have bought the share of HCL Technologies duringthe day.

Geometric gains as big fish is back

ANOTHER infotech stock that gained sharply on the bourses on Friday was Geometric Software. On the BSE, the stock gained 8.54 per cent at Rs 367 with volumes of 6.74 lakh shares. On the NSE, it closed at Rs 364.50, up 7.31 per cent with volumes of 17.36 lakh shares. On both the stock exchanges, volumes were higher from Thursday close.

Dealers said a big investor, who is bullish on the stock, made large purchases. This investor had earlier offloaded his position in the counter in the wake of financial problems. With his financial situation improving, he reportedly re-entered the stock.

LIC, GIC active in index stocks

DOMESTIC financial institutions LIC and GIC were actively buying in a number of index stocks on Friday. Some of the stocks that were bought by them included Satyam Computer, Infosys, Reliance Industries. The active buying by them lifted the indices in the later part of the trading, dealers said.

The stock prices had been falling continuously over the last few days in the absence of any major buying support from institutional investors. However, these institutions did not indulge in basket trading.

Both the insurance companies are looking at value buying in the fundamentally strong companies. Some operators are also understood to have built positions in select index counters and this also boosted the mood of the market in the last one hour of trading.

Virendra Verma

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