Infosys dips to new low

Infosys dips to new low
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, DEC 26: Software giant, Infosys continued to fall on the bourses as it touched its yearly low on Tuesday even as equities suffered a sharp setback pulling the BSE Sensex down by 79 points. The Sensex has fallen by more than 342 points in the last five sessions due to selling pressure from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). NSE Nifty fell by 30 points

Infosys hit the new 52-week low of Rs 5,500 in mid-morning trades breaching its previous 52-week low of Rs 5,600 recorded in May 29 this year. At 11:55 pm on Tuesday, the scrip was down 3.3 per cent to Rs 5,605 with 5.95 lakh shares changing hands on the counter. ``The FIIs are getting out of the scrip due to their normal year-end sell. After they re-allocate their funds in the first week of January, the scrip will shoot up again,'' said Pawan Dharnidharka, a BSE member.

With today's fall, the Infosys scrip has lost over Rs 1,900 or 25.58 per cent in the last seven trading sessions from Rs 7,531.85 on December 14 to the current Rs 5,605. Infosys shares worth Rs 707.39 crore changed hands on Tuesday.

The fall on the Infosys counter has been primarily responsible for the panic on the bourses on technology stocks. Analysts say Infosys is the funds' top stock holding and leading FII Morgan Stanley is continuously selling over the last six months.

According to dealers, while there was selling all the way in scrips like Infosys and Satyam Computer recently, there was no corresponding delivery-based buying by institutions.

Credit Suisse First Boston, on Friday, downgraded Infosys' FY 2002 revenue and earnings forecast by 4 per cent and 2 per cent respectively citing slowdown in the US economy. This has caused a fresh setback on the counter since last Friday.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the BSE Sensitive Index opened better at 3927.51 and rose to a high of 3939.08. However, it reacted later and gradually moved downwards to close at 3826.82 as against last Friday's close of 3905.90, showing a net loss of 2.02 per cent.

Software stocks were the main target of selling by FIIs as well as speculators who were long in a few heavy weighted IT scrips.

In the specified group, 111 counters including 24 indexed shares registered sharp to moderate losses while 28 others showed gains. Astra-IDL lost over eight per cent on reports that the company will face problems over Hindujas' exit from ICI. IDL, the Hinduja company, however denied the report.