The Hindu Business Line : Open offer hopes buoy Orchid

Mumbai, April 15 The Orchid counter at both the NSE and the BSE saw heavy activity on Tuesday, as talks of a further stake buy by Solrex in the company started doing the rounds.

On the NSE, Orchid was amongst the most actively traded stocks.

While its total traded quantity being over three crore shares, its deliverable ratio was only 8.71 per cent.

(Deliverable ratio indicates the ratio of gross deliverable quantity across clients to the total number of shares traded in a scrip at the exchange.) The Orchid Chemicals stock shot up by over 16 per cent on both the NSE and BSE.

Open offer

“The surge in stock price seems to be due to the speculation that Solrex might buy more stake in Orchid Chemicals,” said Ms Sarabjit Kour Nangra, Analyst, Angel Broking Ltd.

Investors took new positions in anticipation that Ranbaxy group company Solrex might go in for an open offer, if it crossed the 15 per cent stake limit,” said an analyst.

The global financial major Morgan Stanley bought 3.30-lakh Orchid shares on the BSE and 4.2-lakh shares on the NSE through bulk deals on Tuesday.

In addition to this, the bulk deal data for the day showed heavy day-trading on the counter.

Solrex’s stake in Orchid inched closer to the 15 per cent mark, when last Friday, it added 3.29 per cent in Orchid through two bulk deals.

An analyst said that the recent stake buy by Solrex in Orchid does not seem like a pure financial investment.

“If it was simply a financial investment, why would they take their stake in Orchid so close to 15 per cent?” said the analyst. Ranbaxy Laboratories was Tuesday’s highest gainer in the BSE, with its price surging 8.62 per cent, on the back of its out-of court settlement with Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca in a patent-related dispute.

Ranbaxy Laboratories has 15.63 per cent weight in the Sensex.

In the recent past, Ranbaxy has picked up equity in Zenotech Laboratories Ltd, Krebs Biochemicals & Industries Ltd and Jupiter Bioscience Ltd. Krebs Biochemicals rose 19.96 per cent to Rs 64 on Tuesday.

Jupiter Biosciences rose by 3.51 per cent to Rs 157.95 and Zenotech Laboratories by 3.48 per cent to Rs 102.65.