Fiis Lead Bear Hammering On Ice

Foreign institutional investors have emerged heavy sellers with Rs 1,148.30 crore ($250 million) worth of equities sold in the last 12 trading sessions.

According institutional brokers, selling was consistent in new economy stocks _mostly ICE majors, like Infosys, Zee Telefilms, Himachal Futuristic, Wipro, Global Telesystems, DSQ Software and HCL Infosystems.

In May, the FIIs have so far sold Indian equities worth Rs 530.80 crore. Even on Tuesday, they sold equities worth Rs 154.50 crore on the Indian bourses.

From May 5 onwards, they have bought stocks worth Rs 2,447 crore and sold nearly Rs 3,596 crore. With continuous selling across the ICE sector, momentum players said they could emerge as net sellers in excess of Rs 1,000 crore this month.

The selling has surprised most players as the FIIs played the role of buyers during the last five months. According to data released by Sebi, the FIIs bought Rs 3,084.10 crore, Rs 1,198.80 crore and Rs 2,586.70 crore in February, March and April respectively.

However, lack of aggressive selling by the FIIs and selective buying by operators helped the 30-scrip BSE sensex to close the day with a loss of only 9.89 points at 3,922.65.

However, all the major Asian markets like in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore ended the day with heavy losses on the back of a sharp fall of 199.70 points in the US technological index Nasdaq. Indian fund managers handling

off-shore funds were of the view that the Nasdaq under-selling pressure had the potential to submerge below the 2,800 mark. Convergent economy indicator, the Business Standard ICE Index dipped by 1.99 per cent or 3.06 points to close at 150.64, while the S&P CNX Nifty ended the day with a minor gain of 11.50 points at 1,235.90