On Tuesday, the net FII outflow stood at Rs 28 crore. On the Mumbai Stock Exchange, due to technical problems the figures on FII transactions were not released, but the market was agog with rumours that they had sold stocks worth Rs 40-56 crore during the day. On Tuesday, FIIs had sold shares worth Rs 20 crore on BSE. During the week-ended August 7, the net FII outflow was $ 7.7 million. Approximately, FIIs have pulled out Rs 100 crore in the last 7-10 days.

While FIIs offloaded stocks, local institutions purchased shares worth Rs 11.35 crores, creating a mismatch between the FIIs sales and the local apetite. Reflecting the battle between the domestic institutions, who continue to be thesaviours of the market, and the FIIs, who sold huge chunks of index based stocks, the BSE-30 Sensex closed at 2,950.80 points registering a net loss of 19.84 points. Interestingly, the index rebounced from an intra-day low of 2,924.24 after testing the support at 2,950 mainly on account of timely support extended by leading domestic institutions.

Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty index also declined by 6.40 points to close at 860.10 points on the first day of the trading cycle.

The highlight of Wednesday's trading session was the bear onslaught on infotech stocks. Rumours of the Jardine Infotech Fund being withdrawn and with Allianze Capital reducing its exposure in the info-tech counters, saw operators liquidating a considerable chunk of their holdings (shares held in the form of warehoused deals). Operators offloaded huge chunks of Infosys Technology, which saw the stock drop by 4.55 per cent to close at Rs 2,611 on NSE. Satyam Computers, NIIT and Pentafour Software, too, fell by 2 per cent. According tomarket sources, FIIs also pressed huge sales at counters like ICICI, ITC, HPCL, Knoll Pharma, MTNL and Reliance. DSP Merill Lynch was rumoured to have sold huge chunks of ICICI and MTNL. SBI Mutual fund, LIC and UTI were rumoured to have placed buy orders at counters like Thermax, Balrampur Chinni and Carrier Aircon. Select FII purchases were targeted at counters like MTNL, Gujarat Ambuja and Hindalco at lower levels. A huge chunk of 1 lakh shares of Carbon Everflow was transacted on NSE at Rs 24.90. According to market sources, the deal was structured by a leading local broker for Dredsner Kleinworth. In the pharma sector, Burroughs Welcome continued its upward march for the third consecutive session, with the stock registering a net gain of 3.85 per cent to close at Rs 402, however, Glaxo moved in a narrow band to gain a meagre 0.97 per cent to close at Rs 378. In kerb dealings, pivotals moved wildly on news that Jayalalitha's meeting had been postponed to August 17. ITC, which traded at a low of Rs 561 at4.15 pm, fluctuated in the band of Rs 570-73 at 8.05 pm, while Satyam Computers quoted in the band of Rs 468 to Rs 471. However, Reliance and Tisco continued to be quoted at a discount.