Reacting to the Russian currency crisis, speculators rushed to the counters of Dr Reddy's, Nestle, ITC and Tata Tea to liquidate their holdings, in anticipation of a negative impact on the earnings of these companies in the next quarter.

Although the market attributed the continuous fall in the stock prices of HPCL, BPCL, Hindalco, Gujarat Ambuja, Dr Reddy's, EIH, Indian Hotel, MTNL, Reliance, Zee Telefilm, Smithkline Beecham, Bank of Baroda, Godrej Soaps and Goodlass Nerolac to huge sales pressed by foreign institutional players, thefigures provided by the exchanges shows that these were mere rumours.

On the NSE, the FIIs sold stocks worth Rs 15 crore, while they bought stocks worth Rs 7 crore. On the BSE, they sold stocks worth Rs 26 crore while they bought stocks worth Rs 6 crore. Socgen Crosby and Credit Lyonnais were rumoured to have sold huge chunks of Dr Reddy's and Tata Tea.

Interestingly, local institutions picked up the the supplies from the FIIs. On the BSE, the FIs bought stocks worth Rs 37 crore, while on the NSE they bought stocks worth Rs 12.56 crore. According to market sources, UTI, LIC and SBI MMF placed buy orders at the counters of EIH, NIIT, Tata Info, Andhra Valley, ABB, Tata Power and EIH.

Among the info-tech counters NIIT and Rolta continued to hog the limelight.

While NIIT appreciated by 2 per cent to close at Rs 1,590 on back of rumours of buying interest from Openheimer and UTI, Rolta was locked at the upper end of the price band on the BSE at Rs 64.80. However, the additional volatility margin of 20per cent on the purchase positions saw the counter receive sell bids towards the fag end of the session. The last half an hour saw the counter record a huge sale order of over 3.45 lakh shares, which saw the stock close at Rs 63.50. Similarly, in the case of HCL HP and Blue Star, the stocks were locked at the upper end of the price band but closed slightly lower on account of profit booking.