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I have been watching a stock for the past month. Nobody has been selling it, but every day the price has increased. If there are no sellers, it means there is no trading happening, so how can the stock increase in price?

Edit:
Its stock listed on Indian stock market BSE. Indian Infotech Pvt Ltd and I have been analysing it from websites like moneycontrol.com and icicidirect.com

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    How do you know that there are 0 sellers at all price and how do you know that there is 0 volume for the entire month
    – base64
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 8:41
  • I have been checking it. In the stats it's mentioned that there are no sellers for that particular stock. But it is has been increasing in same rate till now...
    – navaneeth
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 9:35
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    Can you specify the stock and where you have been look at the price?
    – Dheer
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 11:16
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    As the answers below have already pointed out, you appear to be getting some misinformation about the selling activity in this stock. I'm interested to know more about why you think there are no sellers. Can you please edit your question to include whatever data leads you to believe there have not been any sellers? Then the answerers can also address that misinterpretation.
    – dg99
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 17:09
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    If the stock is in demand it is perfectly possible that every time you look there are no sellers, i.e. nobody offering to sell the stock, because every time someone wants to sell there is always a buyer who will instantaneously take the stock.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 3:36

3 Answers 3

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You are interpreting things wrong.

Indian Infotech and Software Ltd (BOM:509051) clearly has volume and trades.

The MoneyControl site says 

VOLUME 2,467,182
AVERAGE VOLUME
5-Day   3,387,212
10-Day  1,826,464
30-Day  1,178,923

Your words like "Nobody is selling the stock" and "no trade going on" are completely unfounded.

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    Furthermore, if there were no trades, the price wouldn't change. By definition.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 14:17
  • @ChrisInEdmonton Then why does the asking price of a house change when no one is making offers to buy it?
    – Eric
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 17:56
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    It depends on what you mean by "the price". Usually stock prices are quoted as the last trade price, which indeed cannot change unless there is a trade. You could also look at the bid or ask prices - they could change without a trade if people place or cancel orders, even if they are not filled.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 18:08
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    @eric, a house isn't generally listed on a stock market. "Asking price", used for houses, is very different from "last price the stock traded at", for stock markets.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 19:22
  • @ChrisInEdmonton Of course the price of a historical transaction would not and cannot change. However, it's reasonable to expect the potential price of a new transaction to change (as in the asking price of a house). It's not really clear whether the OP is referring to the market price or some other price.
    – Eric
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 23:38
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You can, in theory, have the stock price go up without any trading actually occurring. It depends on how the price is quoted. The stock price is not always quoted as the last price someone paid for it. It can also be quoted as the ask price, which is the price a seller is willing to sell at, and the price youd pay if you bought at market. If I am a seller, I can raise the asking price at any time. And if there are no other sellers, or at least none that are selling lower than me, it would look like the price is going up. Because it is, it now costs more to buy it. But no trading has actually occurred.

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    Are there any examples where this actually happens? I've never seen a stock exchange quote prices this way.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 16:00
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    @ChrisInEdmonton Actually, every (lit) market publishes quotes of the current bid/ask prices (a.k.a. the order book) in addition to the latest trade price. But those bid/ask prices never appear on Google or CNBC or what have you, so the common perception is that an instrument's "price" is it's latest trade price. (In fact, technically speaking, a quote literally refers to the prices in the order book, not the latest trade price, but the term long ago drifted in its meaning.)
    – dg99
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 17:04
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Depending on what currency the price is quoted in and is originally sold, currency fluctuation can also carry over onto the price in your currency.

An example for that would be bitcoin prices which sometimes show heavy ups and downs in one currency, but seem totally stable in another and can be tracked back to changed exchange rates between currencies.

Also like others have said, prices on stocks are not actually fixed. You can offer to buy or sell at any price. Only if 2 people want to buy or sell for the same price there will actually be a transaction.

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  • This does't seem to answer the question.
    – Dheer
    Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 7:58

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