“Drop in the block and bulk deals shows that the HNIs and FIIs are preferring to stay away from the market,” Nexgen Capital Equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.

1. Big investors shy away from large-sized stock market deals in ’08
8 Feb 2009, 1205 hrs IST, PTI
New Delhi: Bearish conditions in the stock market have made corporate, FIIs and other big
investors to shy away from bulk and block deals, which involve transaction of large chunks of
shares of a company, leading to a nearly 30% fall in trading volumes through such deals in 2008.
Analysts believe that High Networth Individuals (HNIs), Foreign Institutional Investors and
other big corporate investors staying away from large-sized deals last year, lead the trading
volume to take a dip.
“Drop in the block and bulk deals shows that the HNIs and FIIs are preferring to stay away from
the market,” Nexgen Capital Equity head Jagannadham Thunuguntla said.
The combined trading volumes of bulk and block deals on Bombay and National stock
exchanges have plunged 27%, representing a decline of Rs1,57,000 crore.
The bulk transactions fell 29% to Rs1,36,000 crore in 2008, while the block deals declined 11%
to Rs21,132 crore, in value terms.
A block deal, refers to a trade with a minimum quantity of five lakh shares or minimum value of
Rs 5 crore executed through a single transaction window on the bourse.
Whereas, a bulk deal involves the transaction in a scrip where the total quantity bought or sold is
more than 0.5% of the entire outstanding shares of the listed entity.
At the end of December 2008, the volumes of bulk deals stood at Rs 1,36,409 crore, significantly
down from Rs 1,91,715 crore in the year-ago period.
Thunuguntla pointed out that the trading volume in the entire market in January 2008 stood at
Rs 1,20,000 crore, while now it has come down to nearly a third at Rs 40,000 crore.
Further, a decline was also visible in the number of bulk deals that dropped 26 per cent from
36,370 trades in 2007 to 26,938 trades in 2008, according to data compiled by SMC Capitals.
quot;Trading volumes had come down drastically last year, hence most of the deals qualifying for the
block deal category are coming down,quot; Arun Kejriwal director Kejriwal Research and
Investment Services said.
The declining trend was also seen in the number of block trades that accounted for a drop of 30
per cent from 589 trades in 2007 to 411 trades in 2008, the report added.

2. Meanwhile, the slide in bulk deals volume on BSE and NSE continued in January this year to Rs
5,857 crore, a 56 per cent decline against Rs 13,352 crore in same month last year.
In January, block deals dipped 49 per cent in terms of volume to Rs 287 crore from Rs 567 crore
in year-ago month.
In aggregate, there were 752 bulk and block deals in January, a 80 per cent plunge from 3,694
transactions in the year-ago period.