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THE stock of Titan Industries moved up swiftly on Tuesday on heavy buying. A market source said that a large Mumbai-based investor was active at the counter of the watch and jewellery maker.

There are several rumours floating in the market on the sudden investor interest in the stock. A much-speculated possibility is the company's merger with Trent, which runs the Westside chain of upmarket retail stores.

The other `news' is that the company may offer to buy back its shares from investors. Some dealers believe that the company would demerge its watch and jewellery businesses into separate companies.

While the grapevine is buzzing with these `stories', a couple of investors, including the earlier mentioned, are said to be accumulating the Titan stock, which closed nearly 14 per cent higher at Rs 124.25 on Tuesday. Trading volumes also spurted with about 4.7 lakh shares exchanged on the BSE and over 11 lakh on the NSE.

Selling pressure eases

THE stocks of Bajaj Auto and HLL perked up in late trade on Tuesday as selling pressure eased at both the counters. According to a dealer, a couple of US-based portfolio investors were big sellers of the stocks last week.

He said that they seem to have completed the current lot of selling on Tuesday. As the pressure eased, both the stocks began moving up steadily.

Bajaj Auto also announced that it had deferred for at least two years a proposed division of its business, something the analyst community had disapproved of.

The stock closed five per cent up at Rs 906.80 on the BSE with a volume of over two lakh shares. More than 4.6 lakh Bajaj shares were exchanged on the NSE.

HLL shares rose marginally to end the day at Rs 175.90 on the BSE with a trading volume of 11.67 lakh shares. About 33.6 lakh shares changed hands on the NSE.

Big guys prop indices

UTI and LIC are reported to have supported the indices on Tuesday by buying Nifty and Sensex stocks. According to a dealer, the two institutions helped support listless indices in afternoon trade.

The Sensex gained 36 points to close at 5,734 and Nifty rose 13 points to end the day at 1,821.

Dinesh Narayanan

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