Two that dropped

In the midst of this magnificent bull-run, we'd like o talk about some stocks which have primarily been on a downslide. We have here two such stocks whose prices have moved southwards during the period May 2004 to August 2005. Though their prices had dipped very low sometime during Mar and April 2005, but they are on a recovery path now. Neither of them have anything else in common, they belong to different industries with no relation to each other.

Datamatics Technologies
In May 2004 there were as many as 21 funds invested in the stock, holding more than 33 lakh shares. Within a span of two months funds started shedding their holdings in the stock. Sundaram Mutual, which had the stock in the portfolios of three of its funds, sold off its holdings completely in June itself. On the other hand, Prudential ICICI Mutual added the stock to three of its fund portfolios namely: Prudential ICICI Balanced, Prudential ICICI ChildCare-Gift and Prudential ICICI Tax Plan. By the end of July 2004, the stock price fell further and two funds from Franklin Templeton moved out from the stock.

During August and September the investment in the stock grew marginally. HDFC Mutual Fund and Reliance Mutual added more than 2 lakh shares each to their existing holdings. Consequently, the investment in the stock grew to over 36 lakh shares as on September 30, 2004. But in October, the price fell up by a massive 14 percent. This triggered a redemption of nearly 5 lakh shares. Reliance Vision exited the stock and sold off 5.77 lakh shares. Pru ICICI Mutual Fund also shed a small portion of its investments. But HDFC Mutual Fund remained bullish on the stock and added close to 1.80 lakh shares, primarily to HDFC Equity Fund.

The stock price jumped back by almost the same quantum by the end of November 2004. During December 2004, neither the stock price moved anywhere nor did the funds churn their holdings in the stock. The price fell up by more than 10 per cent in January and consequently the investments by funds were reduced by nearly 2 lakh shares. Franklin Infotech sold off the stock completely, while Prudential ICICI reduced its investments by over 1 lakh shares, nearly 84000 shares under its technology fund and the remaining under Pru ICICI Child Care Gift.

The month of March witnesses the sharpest fall in the price of the stock-(-17)%-and a subsequent 10 per cent fall during April 2005. Reliance Growth bought nearly 7.5 lakh shares during March but sold them off in the next month itself. Through all these months, the stock price had been swiftly moving up and down. But from December 2004, the price was on a steady down curve and touched a low of Rs 87.85 by the end of April 2005. Only six funds held 33 the stock as on April 30, 2005.

But very soon the price began to look up and HDFC Mutual added nearly six lakh shares to the following fund portfolios: HDFC Equity, HDFC MIP Long-term and HDFC MIP Short-term. The price moved up by 19 per cent in May 2005. The next two months saw no movement in the price. But technology funds continued to move away from the stock and Birla India Opportunities and Pru ICICI Technology shed all their holdings. HDFC Mutual was the only fund house invested in the stock. Even HDFC Mutual sold off nearly 6 lakh shares. Today it hold over 30 lakh shares in three of its funds.

TV Today Network
The stock price has been on a bumpy ride. At the end of May 2004, there were 25 funds holding over 50 lakh shares of the stock. When the price appreciated by almost 11 per cent in June '04, five funds exited the stock while one fund from DSPML Mutual Fund bought more than 2 lakh shares of the stock. Franklin Templeton added nearly 7 lakh shares to its existing investment of almost 31 lakh shares. The fund house seemed to have been really optimistic on the stock. It held the stock in ten of its funds. In the next month, HDFC Mutual bought close to a lakh of shares, under HDFC MIP Short-term. HDFC MIP Long-term already had nearly 5 lakh shares of the stock in its portfolio. During August 2004, four funds sold off their holdings, reducing the total investment in the stock from 61.72 lakh shares to 55.60 lakh shares. JM Financial and Reliance Mutual exited the stock fully while one fund from Franklin Templeton also sold off its holdings. In September 2004, the number of shares held jumped up to 96 lakh. The funds bought nearly 41 lakh shares of the stock during this month. Reliance Growth, which had sold off 5 lakh shares in August 2004, again bought 9 lakh shares. In a very aggressive move, HDFC Mutual bought 19 lakh shares. Franklin Templeton and DSPML Mutual bought 9 lakh and 5 lakh shares respectively. In the next month the price fell down by nearly 19 per cent. This resulted in heavy selling by the funds.

During November 2004, the funds sold off nearly 14 lakh shares. The notable selloffs were those of Reliance Growth, HDFC Equity, Franklin India Opportunities and HSBC Equity. Except for HDFC Equity, the other three funds sold off their investments completely. This brought down the investments in the stock to 83 lakh shares held by 17 funds.

December 2004 saw the stock price soar up by 15 per cent. Funds booked profits and sold off nearly 5 lakh lakh shares. The stock price slipped down by the same quantum in January 2005. After a gap of just one month, the price again fell further by almost 17 percent. This triggered a sell-off by the funds, which continued for next two months and brought down the investments to just 58 lakh shares. Franklin Templeton accounts for more than 95 per cent of the investments. Eighty per cent of these, are held by just two funds-Prima and Prima Plus. Though the stock price has begun to look up during the past few months, but fund investments have remained more or less the same.