Cyclical stocks showed a mixed trend on selective buying and selling. TheDSE index ended 9.02 points down at 967.55 points. Stock brokers said theselling in market favourites IT and media sector stocks was mainly led bydomestic speculators ahead of imposition of special margins in cash by themarket regulator, the Sebi to curb volatility.

They said reports that foreign funds were net sellers on Wednesday on theIndian bourses also contributed to the plunge in stock prices. A lot ofpositions built up in IT, media and telecom sectors in the recent bull-runhad been off-loaded by players, they added.

``Brokers were worried over imposition of 50 per cent margin in cash,'' saida DSE broker. ``Besides imposition of hefty cash margins, end of weeklysettlement was another factor behind today's declining trend,'' said anotherstock broker.

Several IT stocks after initial buoyancy, succumbed to fag end sellingpressure and fell back to hit lower-end circuit-filter. Satyam Computer atRs 6196.60 (Rs 6730), Silverline Industries at Rs 1026.40 (Rs 1110), Roltaat Rs 708.85 (767.40), HCL Infosystems at Rs 683.60 (Rs 740), Digital Equipat Rs 880.50 (Rs 956.90) and Pentamedia Graphic at Rs 1728.40 (Rs 1825) werefreezed at the lower end of price band after exhausting daily price movementlimit of 8 per cent.

SSI Ltd and Aptech also followed suit and ended sharply down at Rs 5440 andRs 2185 over previous closing of Rs 5819 and Rs 2325 respectively. Telecommajor stocks such as Himachal Futuristic after witnessing long bullish phasereacted sharply to profit-taking and lost Rs 167.15 to hit lower sidecircuit-breaker at Rs 2091.85 while Global Telesystems in volatile tradingfinally ended Rs 100 down at Rs 2960, though it soared to Rs 3299.40 at theinitial stages.

Among cyclicals, ACC declined by Rs 9.35 to Rs 130.05, L&Toubro fell Rs17.05 to Rs 276.95 on massive selling. However, index-related and consumergoods major HLL stocks regained buying support at lower levels and recoveredby Rs 18 to Rs 2415 while tobacco major ITC stocks hit upper sidecircuit-filter at Rs 885.20 on revival of buying by interested circlesamidst some short-covering.