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MUMBAI, April 7

AFTER a sharp fall last month, the stock price of Himachal Futuristic Communication Ltd (HFCL) has gained over 50 per cent in the last one week on talks that a leading market player is buying the shares from the market.

The active interest in the counter was also seen today with the stock locked in the 20 per cent upper circuit with record volume on BSE and NSE. The stock price of HFCL gained 19.80 per cent at Rs 17.85 with volume of 1.16 crore shares on the BSE and on the NSE it gained 20.13 per cent at Rs 17.90 with volume of 3.13 crore shares. The active purchases were seen from the delivery ratio on both the exchanges. On the BSE, the delivery ratio was 32.11 per cent and on the NSE it was 39 per cent of the total volume.

Stockbrokers said the buying was mainly from value buyer after the stock had hit a new low of Rs 11.20 recently.

In fact, the stock had fallen continuously from Rs 27 levels after the holders of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) were converted into equity shares in the last week of February. However, after the conversion was over, the stock price started rising.

One of the key investors that converted FCCB into equity shares is Transatlantic Corporation. In a notice to stock exchanges last week, the firm informed that it has acquired 50,79,381 (3.43 per cent) equity shares of the company on March 27, through conversion of FCCB into underlying equity shares. The holding in the company after the acquisition is 7.15 per cent.

Another company, Khandesh Builders has also been acquiring shares of the company from the open market purchases. In a recent notice to the stock exchanges, the company said its holding is 5.19 per cent.

During this time, the holding of the promoters has come down and according to market sources, the holding of promoters in the company after the conversion of FCCBs would be less than 7 per cent. At the end of December 2002, the promoters holding in the company was 10.25 per cent.

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