Mumbai, Jan 19: Market sentiment appears to be swinging back towardstechnology stocks. After a long gap, Infosys hit the upper circuit onWednesday. So did Pentamedia (formerly Pentafour Software) and a host ofother IT stocks.According to brokers, the market is in a consolidation phase and is waitingfor some positive news to embark on another major rally. For Wednesday, themovement in the BSE Sensex was sideways, with the the intra-day high-low gapremaining at a modest 68 points. However, compared to the recently witnessedwild swings in the index, today's movement appeared to be a controlled one.The Sensex opened at 5496.68 points and touched a low of 5460.68 points.Before closing at 5478 points, it touched a peak of 5528.12 points duringthe day. The Sensex had gained 14 points at the end of the day.
The number of advances, however, improved smartly. Around 1198 stocks showeda positive close whereas around 1044 showed a negative close. At the sametime, around 223 stocks remained unchanged. The trading volume too washigher at Rs 3449 crore.
As for Sensex-based stocks, majority of them remained sideways. SBI, NIIT,L&T, Bhel, and ICICI showed marginal gains.
The star counter, however, was Infosys. It opened firm, and touched a peakof Rs 13,200. The close for the day was Rs 12998, which was up by more thansix per cent from the previous close. Along with Infosys, other softwarestocks showed an impressive rally. Pentafour, Global, Silverline, Rolta, HCLTech and Aptech showed impressive gains.
Following a bullish sentiment for the software sector, other software stockslike Computech, Ram Information, Polaris, Kale Consultants, ZenithComputers, RS Software, Vision Techno, and KLG System too showed impressivegains. Meanwhile, among the heavyweights, HLL lost two per cent. MTNL showedheavy selling pressure, and lost six per cent. If fell from a intra-day highof Rs 316.
Besides software stocks, in the specified list, counters like HDFC Bank, DrReddys' Lab, ABB, GNFC, ICICI Bank, and Bombay Dyeing remained the starperformers.
The losers for the day were: IPCL, Escorts, Godrej Soaps, Ashok Leyland,Wockhardt, MRF, and Essar Steels.In the non-specified list, stocks likeSnowcem, Peerless Shipping, Kotak Mahindra, Jain Studio, Alphageo, NathSeeds, Maharashtra Scooters and Sandesh remained the star performers.
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