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NATIONAL Aluminium Company (Nalco) came under heavy selling from institutional investors on Friday. The talk was that with the reports of delay of disinvestment in Nalco, market players seemed to have turned heavy sellers. Dealers said institutions that had taken positions on expectation of open offer after the strategic sale are understood to have sold on Friday. This led to sharp rise in the volumes while the stock price fell.

On the BSE, Nalco stock ended 5.54 per cent down at Rs 105.50 with volumes of 8.35 lakh shares compared to 37,691 shares on Thursday. Similarly on the NSE, the stock ended 5.09 per cent lower at Rs 105.75 with volumes of 9.16 lakh shares compared to volume of 1.75 lakh shares traded on Thursday.

Dealers said some more sell order was yet to be executed at the end of the trading.

UTI package buoys Engineers India

WHEN most of the public sector companies stocks were under selling pressure, one stock that bucked the trend was Engineers India Ltd (EIL). The stock gained six per cent at Rs 355.60 with volumes of 2.74 lakh shares on the BSE. It gained 5.88 per cent at Rs 355.60 on the NSE with volumes of 7.71 lakh shares.

The talk was that the company might declare a special dividend of Rs 25 per share (that is 250 per cent on Rs 10 face-value share). Besides, the stock is being accumulated on talk that the company is likely to gain around Rs 70-75 crore from the US-64 package announced by the Government. Dealers said EIL had invested around Rs 150 crore in US-64 units as on March 2001, for which the company had made a provision of loss following the freeze on the scheme and declaration of NAV by UTI. But after the UTI package, the company was expected to gain around Rs 4 per unit, dealers said.

Block deals in ICICI bank

ICICI Bank on Friday saw several block deals on the BSE. Even though the details of the block deals were not known, the market talk was that the deals were done between two institutions. The stock ended up 1.85 per cent at Rs 142.90 with volumes of 13.42 lakh shares on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock closed at Rs 142.90, up 1.67 per cent with volumes of 2.63 lakh shares.

There were also talks that the bank was likely to place its 17-per cent stake, lying in a SPV, with a strategic player.

Virendra Verma

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