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Journalism of Courage
Tech stocks, led by software bellwether Infosys Technologies, bucked the overall market trend and witnessed huge volatility before settling with minor losses at close of trade on the bourses on Thursday. However, smart gains in pharmaceutical and banking counters propelled the benchmark indices higher amidst considerable volatility on Thursday.
Infosys Technologies was the most volatile of all the tech stocks, witnessing a 12 per cent fall from the day’s high within 10 minutes. It came sharply off an intra-day high of Rs 3,225 to a low of Rs 2,866 around mid-morning following huge selling pressure. The stock, however, recovered from the lower levels later in the day to close at Rs 3,122.10, down nearly two per cent from its previous close.
A Singapore-based FII was rumoured to have sold a chunk of 1.50 lakh shares in the market. Among other tech pivotals, HCL Tech (down 1.87 per cent to Rs 146.60) and Satyam Computer (down 0.64 per cent to Rs 186.40) ended lower after volatile trades.
On the other hand, the BSE-30 Sensitive Index (Sensex) ended with a gain of 38.50 points at 3,639.89, while NSE’s S&P CNX Nifty Index gained 9.85 points at 1,1143.65.
Hitesh Seth, technical analyst at Prabhudas Lilladhar, said, ‘‘We had a recent run-up in technology stocks and the reason behind the fall has been largely due to profit-booking.’’
Analysts said that information technology (IT) spends by US companies are likely to see a further cut. This may hit Indian software-providing companies considerably, they added. Although the outsourcing business for IT companies would keep volume growth high, the pressure on margins would continue, analysts added.
Banking stocks witnessed gains amid talk that the government may consider the return of equity, held by it in public sector banks at par at a meeting scheduled on week-end. Pharma stocks gained on expectations of increased domestic and export sales.
