Sensex falls as IT stocks suffer setback

MUMBAI, DEC. 21. The trendsetter Infosys Technologies continued to bear the brunt of sustained pounding that pushed IT stocks on the defensive, leading to a fresh fall of over 52 points in the Sensex on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

Bulls resorted to heavy unloading in Infosys in which they were reportedly having long outstanding positions, amidst persistent selling from foreign institutional investors in the last couple of days. The negative stance by the FIIs, dealers said, had put speculators in a precarious position robbing them of any opportunity to wind up their holdings.

Speculators were also unnerved by panic situation on Wall Street where fears of a harsh economy slowdown and continuing weakness in corporate earnings sent stocks reeling down for the seventh successive day yesterday. On Wednesday, the Dow fell sharply by 265.44 points and the Nasdaq composite index finished down by 178.94 points, at its lowest level since March 1999. The Southeast Asian markets like Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore also crashed with their indices sliding by 491.22 points, 271.40 points and 30.48 points respectively at close.

Reflecting the weak trend, the BSE sensitive index opened with a wide downside gap at 4013.10 and dropped below 4000 at the day's low of 3968.34 before closing at 4034.23 against yesterday's close of 4086.41, netting a loss of 52.18 points. The BSE-100 index dipped by 36.39 points to 2065.73 from 2102.12.

Morgan Stanley reportedly sold off about 10 lakh shares of Zee Telefilms badly affecting the scrip. However, select heavyweights such as Hindustan Lever, ITC and Reliance helped mitigate damage to the Sensex by scoring handsome gains.

In the specified group, 111 counters registered sharp to moderate losses while 28 others showed gains.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted down at 444.68 and 158.50 against 452.10 and 161.25 respectively. The BSE-500 lost 22.48 points to 1330.09 from 1352.57.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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