Nasdaq Woes Put Pressure On Tech Stocks

Across-the-board selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic mutual funds pushed the market down for the second straight day today. The BSE Sensex ended with a loss of 42.28 points at 3,242.26, but off from its intraday low of 3,222.23. On the NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty shed 12.05 points to close at 1,062.90. Losers outnumbered gainers by nearly two to one brisk trades.

Meanwhile, FIIs continued to be net sellers for the fourth straight session on Tuesday, pulling out a net Rs 94.2 crore. With Tuesday's outflow, FIIs have pulled out a net Rs 300.80 crore in three trading sessions. Trouble-stricken Unit Trust of India was also believed to have been a persistent seller in several heavyweight stocks.

 

Technology stocks slipped on weak sentiments on Nasdaq. The Nasdaq September futures were 43 points down when trading finished on the local bourses, signalling sharp falls when Wall Street opens. Tech-bellwether Infosys Technologies settled 3.98 per cent down to Rs 3,150.70 on selling pressure. Other key stocks such as Satyam Computer (down 4.55 per cent to Rs 216) and HCL Technologies (down 4.25 per cent to Rs 204.05) also lost further ground. Media major Zee Telefilms slipped 5.25 per cent to Rs 130) lost further ground on selling pressure.

Among heavyweights, bluechip stocks remained weak. FMCG heavyweights such as ITC (down 1.75 per cent to Rs 612.70 and Hindustan Lever (down 1.38 per cent to Rs 190) remained weak on fund-based selling. Automobile stocks such as Tata Engineering (down 3.16 per cent to Rs 147), Hero Honda Motor (down 1.78 per cent to Rs 320.25) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.79 per cent to Rs 508.95) lost ground after recent gains.

However, Reliance Industries (up 1.36 per cent to Rs 286.85) and Reliance Petroleum (up 0.20 per cent to Rs 25.25) ended higher, recovering from their lower levels, thus erasing some losses in the market. Select pharma stocks bucked the weak trend. Ranbaxy (up 0.34 per cent to Rs 888.65) ended with a modest gain, on reports that it will receive up to $50 million under a licensing deal with German drugs group, Schwarz Pharma AG. While Cipla (up 0.41 per cent to Rs 951.25) ended off its day's high of Rs 967, but recovered slightly after a near 5 per cent fall on Tuesday.