Indian stock market ended the week on a ho-hum note. Leaving behind the war fear, the investors found Nasdaq tremors as the fresh reasons to dump stocks. Triggered by Rs 345 crore sell-off from FIIs, BSE Sensex shed 69 points and NSE Nifty lost 23 points. Starting from PSU, automobile to technology, key stocks across all sectors fell flat. A dull market sentiment was also reflected in an 11.6 per cent fall in the combined average turnover at both the exchanges since last week.
The amount of FII-sell off is reported to be the highest weekly sell-off since 2001. To add to its woes, domestic fund houses too remained net-sellers offloading Rs 143.43 crore worth of equities. Perhaps, the largest fund house -- UTI is believed to have offloaded its stakes in index heavyweights during the past weeks.
In fact after starting at mild bullish note, the rumours of sell-off by UTI coupled with profit warnings from US computer hardware manufacturers, gripped the markets in the bearish mode. Though it was interrupted by a mild rally on Thursday, which came off as government announced a bailout package for the biggest fund house for the second time since 1998. Relieved that there will be no more sell-off by the behemoth, the markets recovered half the losses, rising 21 points. The sob story of superficial US recovery, unearthing of accounting mishaps the markets once again oscillated in the negative zone by the weekend.
Dow Jones folded up the week with a loss of 2.32%, but tech investors' panic sell-off trimmed Nasdaq by 4%. Back home, the scene was far from good for the technology stocks particularly the second rung ones. Hexaware Technologies, Mastek lost twice as much as losses in pivotals like- Infosys and Satyam. Overall, BSE IT Index ended the week down 5.1%. Consequently, the technology funds were the biggest losers, dropping 4.5% during the week.
PSU stocks, which are amongst the biggest gainers this year, fell on profit booking. Shipping Corporation of India lost 8.6% as it disappointed investors with its poor result -- net profit plunged 82% during January-March 2002, compared to that of the same period in the last fiscal. It was also affected by the government's proposal to delay its divestment by a month, which further dampened other divestment candidates -- BPCL lost 9.43% and HPCL slipped 6.5%. Among the banking sector stocks, SBI shed 2.7% despite its 52% jump in the full-year net profit.
Outlook
Market gripped in uncertainty is unlikely to chart direction. Institutional selling dampened the sentiments this week and investors seem to be looking for fresh triggers. Nervous investors will continue to rock brief rally to book gains. Otherwise, a range-bound week lies ahead.
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