Earlier, the 1000-point rally on the Bombay Stock Exchange to the level of 4200 had given a new lease of life to some of the strong companies, which were lying low as well as to some of the dud stocks. It, thus gave a rare opportunity to investors to exit from these counters. However, investors who were hoping to reap further dividends have now seemed to have missed the bus. Most of the gainers, which had peaked with the Sensex on April 21, have now dropped back to their January level.

In a study of group A and B1 of Bombay Stock Exchange, comprising more than 900 scrips, shows that at least 100 scrips have lost more than 25 per cent in just three trading sessions last week.Some of the prominent losers include Modern thread, Bongaigaon Refinery, Flex Engineering, Polyplex, Garware Polyster, SOL Pharma and Videocon Appliances.

For instance, Modern Thread which had shot up from Rs 7 in January to Rs 13.5 on April 21 is now back to from where it had started. Most of the brokers feel that the retail investors have not capitalised on this opportunity as they were expecting a further spurt in prices. They are now likely to be stuck till the time another blind bull run comes to their rescue, feels a DSE broker. "The current rally was not guided by fundamentals," points out a BSE broker.

Interestingly, the most fancied sector of information technology has also been mauled by the bears. Silverline, for instance, had zoomed from Rs 30 to Rs 82, (a gain of 175 per cent) has slipped by 30 per cent to Rs 57. Software Solution, which gained 161 per cent to Rs 364 on April 21 has also close to 30 per cent and currently trades at Rs 256.

The extent of bearish sentiment of late can begauged from the fact that Bongaigaon Refineries' scrip has lost 37 per cent despite a 120 per cent spurt in net profit to Rs 64 crore. The stock had seen an appreciation of 130 per cent to Rs 22 in anticipation of good performance for fiscal 1998. The company achieved an all-time high crude oil production of 1.71 million tonnes during 1997-98, a rise of 11 per cent over the previous year. It also registered a record production in several petroleum products of the refinery. BRPL's sales turnover stood at Rs 917 crore during the previous fiscal compared to Rs 838 crore in 1996-97.

However, there are not only losers in the list. There are contrarians which have defied the bear onslaught and have registered further gains. Scrips like Max India have seen a further appreciation of 33 per cent in three trading sessions to Rs 275 after touching Rs 206 on April 21. Other major gainers in the past three sessions have been Bharat Gears, Raasi Cement, Himachal Futuristic, Samtel India, Bausch & Lomb, IPCA Laboratoriesand Hoechst Sch. The instance of Hindustan Everest is the most baffling. The scrip had fallen by 57 per cent during the period when the market peaked at 4280 but rose by 44 per cent to Rs 36 during the 270 point correction.