MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 22: The Wipro `game' seems to be over. Wipro stock which rose by 8 per cent and hit the upper circuit for nine consecutive days crashed by 8 per cent as speculators unloaded the stock across the board on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday.The scrip which had an amazing bull run in the last two weeks fell from Rs 9,624 to Rs 8,854. As a result, the market cap of Wipro declined by around Rs 15,000 crore in a single day from Rs 2,20,534 crore recorded on Monday. As Wipro chairman Azim Premji holds 75 per cent stake in the company, his wealth declined by over Rs 11,000 crore overnight.``Many investors are likely to burn their fingers in Wipro. Several investors have bought the stock at higher levels,'' said an operator, adding that heavy manipulation was going in the scrip. However, the regulator and exchanges have not yet taken any corrective steps so far.HLL zooms, market flat: Shares shed gains to end flat on Tuesday after an initial surge took the benchmark BSE Sensex past the 6,000-point levels for the third time this month, dealers said. Index heavy-weight Hindustan Lever rose by 8 per cent and touched an all-time-high of Rs 2,930 and remained in the upward circuit filter throughout the day with the counter witnessing only buyers.Sensex (BSE sensitive index) opened at 6000.30, nearly 117 points higher from the previous close of 5883.33 and firmed up further by touching the day's high of 6009.02, but fell sharply to touch the day's low of 5864.79 before registering marginal recovery to close at 5876.89, showing a net gain of 6.44 points from the previous close. The BSE-100 index also moved down significantly by 76.73 points at 3762.36 from the previous close of 3839.09.However, massive decline in the infotech leaders Wipro and Infosys Technologies pulled down prices at the end. The profit-taking led to the major intra-day fall to the last day of current weekly settlement at the NSE. Most players have either shifted their positions to the NSE or preferred to square off, resulting into sharp decline in some heavy-weighted scrips.Infosys and ITC showed a fall of more than two per cent. L&T and MTNL were down by more than three per cent. SBI, Bhel and Reliance too dipped more than one per cent. Overall, the effect on higher HLL was offset by a fall on these counters.However, demand continued to remain high for IT stocks. A large number of IT stocks touched new highs, and closed at the upper circuit. Stocks like Pentamedia, SSI, DSQ Software, Fujitsu ICIM, Rolta, Global Tele, LCC Infotech and LCC Infotech closed at the upper circuits. Meanwhile, Satyam Computer, Digital Equipment and Penta Communication showed handsome gains.Key auto stocks extended gains made on Monday, when they rose to hit the eight percent upper limit after days of downward slide. Auto stocks also did well. LML was up 7.92 per cent at Rs 54.40, Ashok Leyland up 7.94 per cent at Rs 103.30 and Bajaj Tempo up 7.36 per cent at Rs 240. Bajaj Auto rose 5.02 per cent at one point before trimming gains to end 1.92 per cent higher at Rs 344.50.While most index-linked stocks ended lower, the broad market was strong indicating underlying bullishness, dealers said. Advancing issues beat declining issue 1,066 to 854. Dealers were bullish about the outlook despite the weak ending. "I see the index crossing 6,000 levels again and perhaps closing above it led by heavyweights like Hindustan Lever," said a dealer.
