Infotech stocks crash again

Sensex (BSE sensitive index) opened sharply down at 5358.28 and later fluctuated in the range of 5463.25 and 5330.58 before closing at 5414.48 as against yesterday’s close of 5421.53, netting a small loss of 7.05 points. However, the fall in BSE-100 index was more pronounced having dipped by 66.07 points to 2769.76 from the previous close of 2835.83.

Brokers said the sentiment was also affected by end-account considerations and most businesses were of squaring up in nature. Heavy margins imposed by the authorities, almost all IT scrips reacted on profit-taking, depressed by a further downslide in the Nasdaq composite index that lost another 150 points last night.

FIIs resorted to heavy selling in technology stocks from both specified and cash group and were reportedly net sellers in key scrips like Infosys Tech, NIIT, SSI Ltd, Tata Elxsi, Wipro, Pentafour Software, Aptech, Silverline, Satyam Computer, besides, pharma shares like Dr Reddy’s Lab and Sun Pharma. Infosys Tech and NIIT were locked in lower circuit filter for the third successive day.

In the specified group, 19 scrips hit the lower price band while 10 counters were locked in the upper circuit filter after exhausting the daily price limit. Besides, over 60 software scrips from the cash section hit the lower price band. The total volume of business of Rs 3554.81 crore substantially down from yesterday’s turnover of Rs 4158.27 crore.