Losing Ground

After an extremely dull and lacklustre performance for most part of the session yesterday, the bourses recovered to post a small gain at the end. Continued weakness in technology stocks on the Nasdaq is causing concern even as non technology stocks are showing signs of bottoming out. What the bourses seem to be lacking, however, is a sense of conviction and this is keeping the stocks trading in a narrow range without any strong momentum. Players appear disinterested except for some selective buying in a bottom-fishing approach.

Under pressure

Satyam Computer continued its slide and was under pressure for most part of the session. However, some late buying and short covering led to a smart recovery towards the end, but lower than its previous close. In the past two sessions, about three million shares have been sold by foreign funds. Dutch brokerage sold about one-and-a-half million shares in the previous trading session, while a similar amount was sold by Uncle Jam a day before.

No respite in sight

Zee Telefilms touched a new 52-week low yesterday with buyers shunning the counter. There seems to be no end to negative news in Zee and it would require some superlative act on the part of the company to revive its fortunes. The stock is not finding any takers even at current levels and the supply in the system is triggering a downward pressure rather than any fresh selling.

Disappointing results

Larsen & Toubro also got hammered to its 52-week low following its poor quarterly results. Numero Uno was a seller to the extent of about half a million shares in the previous trading session. Some amount of short covering helped the counter recover a wee bit though.

Outperformers

Himachal Futuristic and Wipro managed to hold ground and tide over the negative sentiment prevailing in the market. Uncle Sam seems to have turned buyer at the Wipro counter and has accumulated about 2 lakh shares in the past few trading sessions. Better than expected quarterly results also helped the counter to register a gain of about 5 per cent. Speculative activity ahead of the company's quarterly results led to the spurt in the Himachal Futuristic stock. Here too the stock closed with a gain of about 5 percent over its previous close.