Back in December, OST was steadily falling like many other...

Back in December, OST was steadily falling like many other stocks.

In January and February, however, it appears to be the strongest stock in the top 100. For a company with no material announcements or developments in that period, that is rather conspicuous and notewothy.

OST has advanced almost every day during 2008, and on all except 3 days, the closing price has been higher than the opening price, which is statistically unusual. During OST's long rise between Feb 2006 and April 2007, there were still 1 or 2 down days each week. This year the candle chart looks conspiciously different.

The buying appears to have been quite relentless and only slightly fazed by the panic days in January.

All of the above is notable just from the daily and intraday charts. I am not an expert on OST's business.

The conclusion could be, that someone with deep pockets is accumulating OST. Whether this is driven by a perception that medium term profitability will be higher than consensus, there is a possible takeover coming, or that OST's proposals to develop an iron-ore export business are promising, or some other reason, I have no idea.

What I can say is that on the basis of the various technicals scans and screens I run over the price action of hundreds of stocks, OST stands out as an outlier to the herd, and has done for some time.