Mumbai, March 6 :    Mumbai, March 6:  Big Bull Ketan Parekh finally appears to have lost his Midas touch. At the end of a tumultuous week, Parekh, who had fired the imagination of speculators swarming Dalal Street with his unerring calls on the market, went into a state of torpor as the bears took a hammer lock on most counters. 'We were neither buying nor selling shares recently', he told The Telegraph. Famous for his ability to spot winners and literally ratchet up shares to Himalayan heights, Parekh is desperately trying to put cobble a winning strategy that will help him climb out of the mess that he now is in. Known for his famed skills to ignite the market and specific counters during the good old times, the Big Bull now is wary and is looking for salvation from institutions to change the dour sentiment on the market. 'Institutions (local as well foreign institutions) have to come forward and buy for sentiments to change,' said the once-flamboyant market maker. The multi million-dollar question is, will they oblige. Parekh reckons that the valuations still look attractive at present, but isn't letting on whether he is going bottom-fishing for stocks. Asked to comment on his two hot picks of the season - Himachal Futuristic and Global Telesystems - which have been hammered over the past week, Parekh remains ebullient: 'They look good for the long term.' He is quick to rubbish market talk that he is in a bit of a hole over his bad calls on the market in recent times and vehemently denies he is facing a liquidity crisis. He points to the fact that end account settlements of pay-in and pay-out on all stock exchanges went off smoothly. The man in the eye of the storm does not believe or at least gives no inkling that exchange officials or even his fellow brokers have done him in this time. 'They have all been very fair,' he reasoned. A section in the market feels that market regulators are handling him with kid gloves because they do not precipitate a crisis on the market. Asked to comment on the rash of rumours circulating in the market about his cash crunch which sent a chill through the market, Parekh says with a sigh, 'I also don't like it, but what can be done about it.' The Big Bull reckons that the convulsions in the market has led to do with marauding bears as with a spate of bull unloading that sent stocks into a deep downward spiral. Last year, around the same time Parekh was in the eye of the storm for a very different reason. The income-tax department was after him at that time, but he restored confidence when he wrote post-dated cheques totalling Rs 26 crore that reassured the department and the market players, investing him with a certain halo. An income tax survey of his 12 firms reveals that his income over the eight months of the financial year 1999-2000 was a whopping Rs 250 crore. Even the tax officials were impressed by the scale of his operations. In fact, sources say, the tax on an income of Rs 92 crore was arrived after setting off the profits against the loss of Rs 53 crore of Classic Credit during 1999-2000 which was acquired this year from the ITC group. This year, sources say, the figures would be more down-to-earth. Parekh comes from the stable of Narbheram Harakchand Securities or N. H Securities as it is popularly called. A third generation broker, he has a legacy to protect. However, neither his grandfather nor his father Vinubhai Parekh has ever influenced the market the way he has. But broking circles still expect him to pull a rabbit out of his hat. If the institutions oblige, that is. Tomorrow will be a crucial day for the bourses.