The Hindu Business Line : Techs dip, PSUs turn darling

If the market talk is to be believed, the selling was from various institutional investors, as they are now shifting their positions to the PSU stocks.

Dealers said after the excellent response to the IPO of various public sectorcompanies, the institutional investors are slowly exiting from the technology stocks.

Another factor for the fall in the technology stocks is expectations that the March quarter results may not be as good as seen in the previous two quarters.

The heavy selling in technology stocks was reflected in the BSE-IT index, which shed 1.96 per cent, the steepest fall among sectoral indices.The shares that dipped on Monday included Infosys Technologies (down 2.55 per cent at Rs 5108.15 on BSE), Satyam Computer (down 1.78 per cent at Rs 302.70), Wipro (down 2.92 per cent at Rs 1440.40) and HCL Technologies (down 2.46 per cent at Rs 281).

Cementing gain

WHEN IT stocks were on sell mode, shares of cement companies — ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Madras Cement, Grasim and L&T — were in demand on Monday.

The talk was that the dispatches of cement in February were higher and this indicated good demand for the commodity. Apart from this, good investment in infrastructure is also expected to boost cement demand in the next year, dealers said.

Several players are understood to be betting on this sector after the good returns from steel companies shares.

Divestment hopes drive them

STOCK prices of several Gujarat government-owned companies were in the limelight on Monday. The stocks that saw buying included GSFC, Gujarat Industrial Power and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation.

Dealers said after the good response to the public offer of central government PSUs, expectations of possible disinvestment in these stocks have brightened. Though talk of disinvestments in these companies is very premature, several traders are taking advantage of this and pushing up the stock price of these companies.

There was also talk that the State Government might also go in for strategic sale.

Virendra Verma

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