MUMBAI, JULY 20: The bull rally ran out of steam on Tuesday as local and foreign institutions booked profits across the board. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index (Sensex) went into a tailspin and plunged by 99 points as profit-taking pulled down infotech and pharma shares.Sensex ended at 4617.82 points as compared to the previous close of 4716.81 points. Opening at 4703.33, the Sensex witnessed a high of 4721.78 and a low of 4586.26. Reflecting the downtrend, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shed 34.90 points to 1314.70 points from 1349.60 points of the previous day.Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded stocks of infotech, pharma, cement and diversified companies. Infosys Technologies, which reached its 52-week high of 5,518 in the last trading session, plummeted by Rs 450 to Rs 5065. The company's ADR listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange of the US fell from $ 118 to $ 91.25.``Today's fall was fuelled by speculative selling pressure from FIIs. There was also some selling in index scrips by domestic financial institutions,'' said a broker. Among local institutions, UTI was a major seller in select scrips.``While cyclical stocks are reacting, this profit-booking in software counters was expected,'' said a fund manager. So what will keep the markets in forward gear in the near future. ``The market is likely to move in a band of 300 points in the near-term,'' analysts said, adding, ``the market is likely to go above its all-time high of 4810 but is expected to see a correction of around 200 points from that level for fresh buying to emerge.''Bulls and domestic financial institutions, however, were engaged in buying and selling in line with the activity on the NSE, which had the last day of the current settlement inducing operators to square up positions. The fall in Sensex, however, would have been further heavy but for the impressive gains in the index heavyweight Hind Lever which was in keen demand.Siemens too rallied smartly on announcement of a turnaround by the company which reported Rs 1.82 crore net profit for the third quarter ended June 1999 as against rs 15.26 crore loss in the same corresponding period. Satyam Computer was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 258.43 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 2463.79 crore on the BSE. Satyam Computer dropped by Rs 83.25 to Rs 1405.50. Pentafour software dipped by Rs 68.80 to Rs 1206, ITC by Rs 50.05 to Rs 1006.95, Ranbaxy by Rs 14.95 to Rs 802 and RIL by Rs 5.70 to Rs 179.80.Infosys falls on NasdaqMUMBAI: The Infosys scrip took heavy beating on both domestic and overseas bourses. In early trade on Tuesday at the Nasdaq exchange of the US, Infosys ADR slumped to $84. On Friday, the ADR had hit an intra-day high of $121.87 before it retreated to close at $110.75 with a record volume of 4.43 lakh ADRs.Earlier in the day on domestic bourses, some operators are believed to have burnt their fingers in the Infosys counter with the scrip reacting sharply in the domestic market after an overnight fall of $19.5 in the Infy ADR at Nasdaq. Expecting a further surge in the Infosys ADR, the stock opened on the upper circuit at Rs 5960 at the Bombay Stock Exchange before news spread in the market that the ADR had lost $19 to end at $91.25. This translates into a fall of Rs 1645 per share.The domestic stock immediately reacted and nosedived to Rs 5320. It later hit the lower end of the circuit filter at Rs 5077 before closing slightly higher at Rs 5082 against Monday's close of Rs 5519. Intra-day, the stock lost close to 15 per cent or Rs 883. There were only sellers on the National Stock Exchange at a price of Rs 5065.
